As you ring in the new year, there might be some traditions to carry into 2025 and some superstitions that are better left in the past.
Can eating black-eyed peas or wearing a certain color of underwear really bring you luck in 2025? There’s only one way to find out.
Perhaps one of the strangest superstitions is the belief that eating 12 grapes under a table as the clock strikes 12 will bring you good luck throughout the year. Supposedly, the grapes need to be eaten one by one before the clock changes to 12:01.
If you do manage to shovel all 12 grapes in your mouth by then, good luck is supposed to be your constant companion throughout the entire year. But why under the table?
It’s said that by eating them under the table, you could also end up finding the love of your life. The 12 grapes signify 12 wishes for the new year.
If the grapes didn’t fill you up, try eating some black-eyes peas and some lentils for a financially prosperous 2025. The round shape of the foods has symbolic meaning, meant to resemble coins. Not only is eating black-eyed peas a tradition for good luck, it can also be seen as bad luck not to eat them.
Eating green round food like peas — the color of money and eating cornbread — the color and shape of gold bars — are also a popular food-based New Year’s Day traditions.
Besides those food items, noodles, pork, pomegranate seeds and whole fish can also bring you luck. Pork is considered lucky because pigs root forward with their snouts instead of digging backwards. Eat some pork and you too might be moving forward into the future.
On the other hand, lobster might be bad luck to eat since they walk backwards.
Besides eating pork, try walking around the block with an empty suitcase if you’re superstitious. While your neighbors might think you’re strange, let them know you are manifesting a year full of adventure and traveling to new places. Some believe that instead of carrying your suitcase around empty, you should pack it with the vacation you want. Pack sunscreen and flipflops are for a sunny beach vacation or a parka and snow boots for a mountain getaway.
Bad luck might be brought to your doorstep if you clean the house or do a load of laundry. According to Chinese superstition, doing your daily chores might just cleanse away any good fortune for the upcoming year. You’re not just sweeping away dirt, you’re sweeping away good luck and potentially even a loved one.
Some believe that by cleaning up, you will wash away a loved one and suffer the death of a loved one in the new year.
On New Year’s Day, don’t just grab any pair of underwear, consider your goals for the year and choose wisely. Red panties are said to bring passion and love; pink undies platonic love; green underoos for freedom, life and nature; blue knickers for good health and yellow unmentionables for wealth.
Whether or not you believe in traditions or superstitions, it doesn’t hurt to try. What’s the worst that can happen?
A bad meal filled with fish, pomegranate seeds and black-eyed peas? And who knows? Maybe listening to music by the Black Eyed Peas will also bring you luck.
Either way, here’s to hoping 2025 is a year filled with good luck and fortune for everyone.
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