Tag Archives: new years tradition

New years luck

“Korea is pretty strict about how you treat your elders. One example I remember is on new years, lunar not Jan 1st, you’re supposed to bow down and say 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (saehae bok mani badeuseyo) which roughly translates to, I wish you receive lots of good luck. Its a full bow, you get on your knees, and there’s a specific hand you put on top of the other depending on your gender. If you do this, you get money in return, so there’s no reason not to. It basically allows the elders to pay for good luck and respect, and the kids get money”

My informant and I have participated in this act. We both do it every year, even if we have to facetime our grandparents. The saying can also be sort of like a ‘happy new year’ in that you can say it to your taxi driver without the whole bow. It became a tradition since it solidifies the hierarchy in the family.

This ritual often takes less than 10 minutes. In the past, my sister, dad, and I would do it during dinner, since with the time shift, it would be our grandparents breakfast. Like other rituals, its designed to control some part of the elder’s life, in this case their luck. There is a lot controlled during the ceremony also, such as how you bow and what your hands should be doing.

Miso Seaweed Soup

Text:
In our family, we usually eat seaweed miso soup on New Year’s Day. I remember my mom would wake up early before everyone and would make us breakfast, no matter how tired we were from the night before. Whatever food she would make us, seaweed miso soup would always be a staple part of our breakfast on New Year’s Day. She used to tell us that drinking the soup on the first day of the year would ensure good health for all of us throughout the year and thus, would lead to prosperity. That is a recurring theme in Japanese culture, you know..actually int any Asian cultures….to link prosperity to health. Anyway, now that I am away from home, I try to keep these traditions closer to me than ever before. Last New Years, I was not able to go back home but I made sure to make the miso soup for myself. Reminded me of home.

Context:
CL is a college student studying journalism. Originally from Japan, she moved to the United States with her family when she was ten years old. She tells me that even though they don’t live in Japan anymore, her family tries their hardest to not forget their culture roots. CL told me the above piece of information in a conversation about New Year traditions that we observe at our homes.

Analysis:
The above is an example of a folk food that is used to bridge cultural gaps and to feel closer to a family’s cultural roots. Despite leaving the country they were born, through certain cultural motifs such as food, it can be observed that people can feel closer to their cultures and communities. It is not the miso soup that holds meaning, but the act of consuming it on a New Years day that bears cultural significance. Thus, this shows that meaning is usually generated when an individual usually links an act to a widespread significant event (here, New Years Day) and integrates it into society.

New Year’s Day Pork, Sauerkraut, and Donuts

CONTEXT: JM is a third year USC student from Pennsylvania. He describes a tradition he learned from his mom to mark the new year (Jan 1). He reflects fondly on the tradition, though he expresses that he didn’t really understand why they did it.

TEXT:

JM: On New Year’s Day, my mom would make us eat donuts in the morning for good luck and for dinner we would always have pork and sauerkraut. I think it’s a German thing but I’m not entirely sure why. So breakfast was donuts and dinner was pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. I think you’re technically supposed to eat the donut at New Year’s Eve, but my mom always gave it to us in the morning. She’s Italian, but I think her dad’s side is German and that’s where it came from.

ANALYSIS: This is a foodway, and a celebration and marker of the start of a new calendar year. JM believes this tradition follows German tradition that his mother inherited from her family. I have heard of donuts and pork and sauerkraut being eaten in Germany for good luck. This also makes it a tradition that brings family together, both when it is eaten, and across generations. Eating pork and sauerkraut for New Year’s Day is also practiced by the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish communities, commonly in the region where JM is from. Both foods are eaten for good luck, which is a superstition associated with the calendar year- starting new.

Spanish New Year Tradition: Eating 12 Grapes

Context:
The informant is a 20-year-old guy living in California. His mother’s side of the family is Spanish and his family still practice some Spanish traditions in their American household.

Text:
Informant: Basically, at midnight on New Year’s Eve, when the clock strikes twelve, we will eat 12 grapes. Each of them symbolizes a month in the upcoming year, so it’s important that you eat all 12 of them. It gives you good luck.
Collector: Does it matter whether they are green grapes or purple ones?
Informant: I don’t think so. Although I heard my mom say that you should eat the grapes along with the bell trikes. Well, we don’t get that here in California, so we kind of just eat them one by one.

Analysis:
In Spain, there are a great variety of grapes and grapes are important to their agriculture and wineries. Grapes are most likely a symbol of prosperity. According to the article in Atlas Obscura, the tradition might come from a clever farmer’s marketing strategy to digest a surplus harvest, or from an imitation of French customs acted by the bourgeoisie in Spain. Regardless of the origin, Spanish people see this tradition as a way to avoid bad luck and bring good luck for the upcoming year. This idea of 12 grapes symbolizing 12 months can be seen as homeopathic magic, meaning that the people would have grapes, or other crops, to harvest every month in the upcoming year. Some parts of this tradition are lost in the informant’s family since they emigrated from Spain to the United States; however, they still continue to perform this tradition each year to remember their cultural roots and cultural identity.

Ritual: New Year’s Polka Dots

Text

The informant claimed that a lot of rituals they remember performing take place around the New Year. “One would be wearing polka dots or, as my mom calls it, bola bola. Because circles represent coins– so like wealth and good fortune in the New Year. She encourages literally everyone in my family to wear polka dots. There was one year where we all found Hawaiian shirts that had polka dots and so that was a little theme for the New Year. It was so cute.”

Context

RELATIONSHIP –
“Financially, it’s always been a little hope that my mom has– like a little bit of faith. Like ‘Maybe the New Year will be better for us financially.’ It’s a thing my mom does. She’s a very superstitious person, so she always has hope in the New Year. She always tries to bring the family together, so that hope can be spread to her family. And she can be surrounded by a similar hope as well.”

WHERE THEY HEARD IT –
“My mom,” they spoke fondly. “It started being more prominent in middle school for me. That’s like the earliest I can remember. I she she kind of, like leans on these kinds of traditions when she feels like she needs it most. With doing a simple thing like wearing polka dots– I think around middle school was when we started facing a lot of financial issues very prominently. My mom is a woman in faith, so she finds comfort in so many different things.

INTERPRETATION –
“[My mom] definitely uses it as like a comfort method for sure. Not really like a defense mechanism, but a ways to kind of like cope with certain things. Giving her that sense of nostalgia that I’m pretty sure she felt with her family growing up.”

Analysis

Polka dots or bola bola are a popular pattern that’s believed to bring wealth and prosperity. This is similar to other beliefs that link prosperity to a particular color, but the complexity of a patterned fabric may be what warrants this belief. With the arrival of a New Year, it’s a common held belief that there will be changes made to one’s life whether it be fate or their own control. Wearing the polka dot pattern on the transition into a new year may be a way to “perform the part” that the participant wishes for themself to be. It’s almost like pretending to be what you’re not, and from then on, transforming into what was done for pretend.