All around the world people start their New Year with a meal comprised of foods they consider to be “lucky” and that promote “prosperity and happiness.” My family is no exception. We understand the importance of having a blackeye pea dish on the New Year’s day menu. Blackeye peas (or any legume, really) are a symbol of money—they swell when cooked and money grows when wisely watched over. It’s a tradition I can believe in.

And my Aunt Annie always brought a collard greens dish to our family buffet (the greens at the table displayed our confidence for a prosperous new year). Any green will do, but collards is a southern tradition because they last so long in the garden, are affordable in the super markets, and their flavor blends nicely with ham and bacon.

Cakes and other baked goods are commonly served from Christmas to New Year's around the world, with a special emphasis placed on round or ring-shaped items. Italy has Chiacchiere, which are honey-drenched balls of pasta dough fried and dusted with powdered sugar. Poland, Hungary, and the Netherlands also eat donuts, and Holland has Ollie Bollen, puffy, donut-like pastries filled with apples, raisins, and currants.

In certain cultures, it's customary to hide a special trinket or coin inside the cake—the recipient will be lucky in the new year. For instance, Mexico's Rosca de Reyes is a ring-shaped cake decorated with candied fruit and baked with one or more surprises inside.

Greece is another country where this tradition is practiced. They make a special round cake called Vasilopita and it’s always baked with a coin hidden inside. At midnight or after the New Year's Day meal, the cake is cut, with the first piece going to St. Basil and the rest being distributed to guests in order of age.

It seems the important and consistent tradition with a New Year’s cake is including something in the batter—a coin, a nut, fruits, etc. But something healthy can also be hidden in cake batter. A prune, for instance. The prune cake is a common New Year’s Day dessert for certain cultures where prunes are available.

Then there’s the pomegranate, considered a symbol of fertility, prosperity, and long life. Back to Greece, it’s their tradition to hang a pomegranate in front of each household's door on Christmas Day. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the person with good luck (the one who ended up with the coin in his or her cake) gets to smash the fruit in front of, or on the door. The number of seeds revealed indicates the amount of good luck all members of the house will experience in the months to come. Tip: Place the pomegranate in foil or a couple doubled-up plastic bags before smashing to prevent a sticky mess.

Just as it’s important to know what to eat on New Year’s Day, it’s also wise to know what not to eat. In addition to the aforementioned lucky foods, there are also a few to avoid:

• Lobster, for instance, is a bad idea because they move backwards and could therefore lead to setbacks.
• Chicken is also discouraged because the bird scratches backwards, which could cause regret or dwelling on the past.
• Any winged fowl because good luck could fly away.

Now that we know what to eat, there's one more superstition—uh, guideline—to keep in mind. In Germany, it's customary to leave a little bit of each food on the plate past midnight to guarantee a stocked pantry in the New Year. Likewise in the Philippines, it's important to have food on the table at midnight. The conclusion? Let’s eat as much lucky food as we can, let’s just don't get too greedy—or the first place we'll be going to in the new year is the gym!

If you’d like to entice some luck, health, prosperity, and happiness into your New Year, here’s a recipe that incorporates the pomegranate seeds mentioned above. Once it’s smashed, here’s a delicious way to use them.

Finally, I want to not just say “Happy New Year!”, but thank you for being part of our DVO family. It’s a true privilege researching and writing for you! So here’s to a tasty, healthy, and creative 2020 cooking experience!

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