You can tell a lot about the Black community by the food they eat. No, we’re not talking chicken and watermelon stereotypes. We’re talking carefully prepared meals that have been passed down for decades.
In particular, the meal we prepare to ring in the New Year has a story of its own, connecting our roots to West Africa and history of oppression to a sense of hope for good fortune and tidings.
Luckily, the future our enslaved ancestors prayed and wished for has now materialized into reality. However, we keep these New Year’s foods on the menu to remember how far we’ve come and continue hoping for an even better future.
Black-Eyed Peas
Native to North Africa, black eyed peas found their way to the mouths of Black Americans by way of the transatlantic slave trade. European slavers fed enslaved people the beans while on the ships. By the time we reached land, we were fed the beans, sharing the same diet as livestock, per All Recipes. Over time, it became a token of good fortune, health and abundance going into the New Year, per The New York Times. They are also said to represent good luck and coins.
Hoppin’ John
Not exactly black-eyed peas but close! The one-pot peas and rice dish is a staple tradition of the Gullah Geechee people of South Carolina. Typically, the dish is prepared with field peas or red peas which are most often found in the Lowcountry, making the consistency likened to a West African pea stew or a gumbo. The dish has been on the menu since the signage of the Emancipation proclamation, per The Times. Now, the dish is said to mean good luck into the new year. Adding pork for flavor increases chances of good fortune, per Black Southern Belle.
Greens
The superstition revolving around the power of collard greens, mustard greens or whatever greens you got has been a tradition for centuries. It’s no mistake that the leafy veggies resemble dollar bills. Black people nearly considered them as such, according to author and food scholar Adrian Miller, via The Times. To ensure financial prosperity for the rest of the New Year, put a pot of greens on the stove for mo’ dollas.
Pork
What would a Black family food spread be without a pig?! Ham hocks, hog jowls, pig feet and whatever scraps were left after all the “good meat” was gone was all we were afforded in slavery. However, smoked pork was sometimes a gift to enslaved people from their owners, therefore, becoming a staple of fortune for the New Year, per The Times. Also, the replacement of a chicken or turkey with the hog for a protein is said to be because pigs can’t “fly away your good luck” as the other fowls could. Pigs also “push things forward” into the New Year with their snouts, per Black Southern Belle.
Cornbread
The OG struggle meal for enslaved people was a simple mixture of cornmeal and water sometimes fried in bacon grease (hoecakes) or cooked directly on a hot cake of ash (ashcakes), Dr. Frederick Douglass Opie, professor of history and foods at Babson College in Massachusetts tells the Tennessee Tribune. Over time, the recipe became enriched with added ingredients of milk and butter. Now, they are a must-have side dish remixed with all different types of additives. Can you guess what a fresh skillet of this buttery goodness can represent for the New Year? Gold, for that stunning gold finish on top.