I can remember people many years ago making New Year’s resolutions. These were things we wanted to either start doing or possibly do better.
Yes, I too, began making these New Year’s resolutions. Quite honestly, I didn’t start to make the resolutions until New Year’s Eve. And during some years, I didn’t make them until New Year’s Day.
Was I serious in my intentions? Well, I probably was for a few days. In my opinion, making New Year’s resolutions is a tradition with more people making them than keeping them. Our friends make them, so we make them too.
There are other New Year’s traditions that we have been following for years. One of the traditions is what we eat on New Year’s Day.
My memory, jaded as it is, recalls having black eyed peas and cabbage on this day. This was supposedly the main ingredients of the “good luck” meal. My mom added fried chicken, rice and corn bread to this meal. The overall meal was good because my mom could cook.
After New Year’s Day, I don’t remember that combination of food items until the following year. In a strange sort of way, if this represented “good luck” food, why didn’t we have it more often?
Another New Year’s Day tradition that I found more humorous than anything else was who showed up at our house on that day. It was good luck for the entire year if a man was the first person to come to your house on New Year’s Day. I was so young I don’t remember that happening in my neighborhood. However maybe in the East Winston section of Winston-Salem NC, we had a man or a group of men who performed that task.
