Some New Year’s Day superstitions

[feng_shui_house]

These I can do.
Don’t do laundry. Don’t sweep floors. Avoid chicken and lobster. Eat something pig based (pigs are lucky because they root forward, chicken and lobster unlucky because they scratch backward). I have SPAM.

These I can’t do.

Nothing should leave the house, including trash (Sorry, but cat litter waits for no one).
Wear something new. Hmm… the only clothing I’ve bought in years are bras and shoes. I put the new bras at the bottom of the dresser drawer.

Have full cupboards (empty kitchen cabinets is considered a sign of impending poverty). I don’t have *food* in my kitchen cabinets, but they’re full of Tupperware, kitchen tools, spices, etc. My food is either in the fridge or the pantry…mmm… and neither of them is exactly full. Ok, poverty impends. *shrug* What else is new? :^)


Let’s cherry pick a few from around the world—Puerto Rico- throwing pails of water out the window drives evil spirits away. Does it count if you throw out the water in yesterday’s cat bowl into the yard? I’mma gonna say yes.

-South American Countries – wear colored underwear to determine your fate. Red will bring you love, gold will bring you wealth and white will bring you peace. (Peeks— white. Ok, peace is good.)

Estonia – you should eat seven times on a New Year’s Day to ensure abundance in the New Year. (Does snacking on peanuts count?)

Panama – burning the effigies of everyone and anyone famous is a popular tradition. (I’m so tempted…)

https://www.thevistapress.com/traditions-and-superstitions-of-new-years-eve-and-new-years-day/

Comments

[vera_j]

Ha! That eating thing - oh crap, I kept eating here and there, so I can only wait for that abundance all right! But I really love that about burning effigies - I am MORE than tempted, my friend!

[feng_shui_house]

Some people would look really good when set on fire. :^)

[conuly]

Everybody in the world thinks you should eat symbolic foods. Foods like money to be wealthy, sweet foods to be healthy, round or long foods to live a long life or maybe for fertility.

Since all their foods are symbolic, you can probably make up your own symbolism for whatever it is you eat today.

[feng_shui_house]

That's a great idea. :^) Ok, so I had coffee and tea, which represent energy. I didn't have MUCH of anything, but I had nibbles of:

Cooked pears - pears are shaped like infinity sign outline- so long life. Banana cake made from overripe banana, so turning loss into gain. Peanuts which add nitrogen to the soil, so they represent healthy growth. A gluten free chocolate sandwich cookie, which represents abundant happiness. A few bites of Spam, made from pigs who are lucky because they root forward. A few Nut-Thins almond crackers- the almond is Biblically noted as favorable as a symbol of hope, light, and resilience- it blooms early in the winter in Israel...

So yay, I'm good. :^)

[sallymn]

I hadn't heard of those food superstitions... or maybe I had, there are just so many bits and pieces crammed in my head.

[feng_shui_house]

The internet has so much STUFF. ;^) Yesterday I spent hours finding photos of, and learning about, Chinese rank badges. They were embroidered patches used from 1391 in the Ming Dynasty all the way up to 1911 in the Qing Dynasty.

A lot of museums and private collectors have them. They're beautiful and lots of fun to categorize by rank, and note the individual variants. Nearly all were silk, some used gold thread, and peacock feather filaments for thread, even pearls for white areas and coral beads, etc.

Interestingly, the lowest ranks are the hardest for collectors to find because the people at the lowest rank usually couldn't afford to commission extras (there were specialized places with trained embroiderers- and some of the wealthy people had embroiderers employed in. the family, or even women in the family who had the leisure to learn how to do it), so they were buried in their finest clothes, with the only rank badges they had.