As I may have mentioned, I celebrate the new year at Ostara. I do this because a new year, to me, means new beginnings and new life. The calendar new year in January doesn’t really say new life to me. It says slushy, cold, gray days and long nights. Although I do end the year at Samhain, I view the time after it until the winter solstice as an “in-between time”. At Yule, the days start to get a little bit longer, but again, the timing just isn’t right to me.
The Persian new year of Nowruz is also celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox. It’s the start of the Iranian calendar and lasts for thirteen days. There’s focus on family and friends, celebrations with fireworks or around bonfires, and, of course, food.
I added kuku sabzi to my Ostara menu several years ago. It’s sort of a frittata but packed with fresh herbs, making it perfect for celebrations of spring and new life. My kitchen witch path is pretty eclectic when it comes to food. That leads me to the real topic of this post, and that is traditional new year dishes from different places and groups. What do people eat, and why?
First, I’ll look at some dishes eaten in the US because that’s where I’m from. More specifically, I’m from the Appalachian region, with its mixture of Irish, German, and Italian ancestries, among many others. Some of Appalachia is in the south. These things all come together to influence the dishes consumed on New Year’s Day. The purpose of these foods is usually to bring good luck and abundance/money. This includes Hoppin’ John, with its combination of black eyed peas and rice. It’s often served with collard greens. All of these ingredients represent money. Dried beans, salt pork, and rice would be winter staples.
In Japan, buckwheat soba noodles are eaten to represent longevity. Noodles are also eaten during the Chinese lunar new year, also for longevity. Dumplings are another traditional food. These represent wealth. Grains and meat are foods that symbolize wealth, abundance, and prosperity.
In Germany, people eat a lot of pork to bring good luck in the coming year. My university German teacher said in his grandparents’ home, they ate pork and sauerkraut at midnight. The idea in their household was to fill up on good food to start the year right. “May you never hunger”, right?
With most new year celebrations occurring in the winter months, preserved foods and dried foods made the most sense. A pig could be slaughtered for fresh meat if needed. Most of us aren’t so agrarian these days, but we tend to follow the traditions we know, and that includes eating a lot of the same foods every year even though we can now access pretty much anything at any time. (Yuck to produce out of season!)
While the dishes could be switched up for variety or due to availability, dietary restrictions, etc., the purposes remain the same. We want to welcome prosperity, abundance, wealth, health, and good luck into our lives in the new year. A magical diet can include these energies from a variety of ingredients, meaning you can consistently imbue your diet with properties of good luck, protection, prosperity, or anything else you choose, any goal.
Two of the resources I started with and go back to most often are Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs and his Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen. The indices are great for quick searches. There are lots of great titles for the kitchen witch with recipes ready to go, too. Start by making something for a specific sabbat, such as the aforementioned kuku sabzi. And here’s to a happy new year and new beginnings.
