Category Food

This is an old Irish custom of celebrating New Year’s Day, which was also known as the Day of the Buttered Bread. It is not popular among the people of Ireland today. According to food anthropologists, until the 20th Century, buttered bread was either placed on the doorstep for passers-by or thrown at the door and taken back to be consumed. Butter and bread were luxurious products during that period and this tradition was a symbol of banishing hunger and welcoming plenitude.

Usually sold in flattened rounds, it is often served toasted with butter along with a cup of tea in the afternoon. The dough is sweeter than sandwich bread, but not as rich as cake, and the sultanas and raisins add flavour and texture to the final product.

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Vasilopita is a cake cut in Greek households on New Year’s Eve to bring good luck for the year ahead. This sponge cake is made with flour, almonds, yeast, sugar and milk. A coin or a trinket is usually hidden within the cake and the person who gets the slice with it is believed to be blessed with good luck for the upcoming year.

This age old tradition commenced in the fourth century, when Saint Basil the Great, who was a bishop, wanted to distribute money to the poor in his Diocese. He wanted to preserve their dignity, so as not to look like charity, he commissioned some women to bake sweetened bread, in which he arranged to place gold coins. Thus the families in cutting the bread to nourish themselves, were pleasantly surprised to find the coins.

The Vasilopita is a beautiful tradition, and a custom which should not be neglected by Greek Orthodox Christians. It is such a wonderful way to begin each New Year.

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Germany and its neighbour Austria’s Sylvesterabend (Saint Sylvester’s Day) celebrations coincide with New Year’s. Glucksschwein or marzipan pig is a popular traditional confection distributed among family and friends during the New Year’s Eve feast. This treat, made with sugar and almond paste, is a tradition meant for good fortune. Schwein gehabt is German for “having a pig”, an expression to state that someone is lucky. The tradition is believed to have its roots in the medieval period, when a farmer who bred a lot of pigs was considered fortunate.

Some Glücksschweinchen or good luck piggies come with a little clover on them. Legend has it; Eve took a four-leaf clover out of the Garden of Eden. So when you find one, you have found yourself a little piece of paradise.

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Cotechino con lenticchie (sausage with lentil stew) is an inseparable part of Italian New Year celebrations. According to traditional beliefs, lentils represent money and good fortune, and pork (in the form of sausages) is a symbol of prosperity and richness and is believed to bring good luck.

You may be wondering why Lentils are used in this Traditional Italian dish? Lentils are seen as coin-shaped legumes which has a relation to wealth. It is therefore believed that Lentils are symbolic for this tradition and so it is always served with Cotechino or Zampone at Midnight New Years Eve to bring you prosperity & wealth in the New Year.

Lentils can be purchased from almost any Supermarket or Delicatessen and come in dry form or in tins depending on your preferred cooking style.

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Pomegranates represent fortune, fertility, abundance and good luck in Turkey. Though pomegranates are a vital part of their cuisine, on New Year’s Eve the fruit is usually smashed against the ground. This is mostly done at the doorstep. It is believed that the more the seeds that burst out, the more good fortune one will acquire. This practice is based on the legend that one fruit bears multiple seeds and has the ability to become many trees in the future. This tradition is also followed in the neighbouring country Armenia.

Each autumn, when pomegranates are at their best, you will see stalls spring up all over Turkey selling fresh juice in markets and on street corners. Pomegranates are grown throughout Turkey, especially in coastal regions around the Aegean and Mediterranean and tourist resorts like Dalyan and Side. Many properties in Turkey have pomegranate bushes in their gardens, the Turks believing the harvest will bring luck to their family home. Pomegranates are also incorporated in many Turkish dishes. The kernels are often found in salads, and a sweet and popular pomegranate molasses (syrup) is widely used by chefs to marinate meat or incorporated into sauces.

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In Japan, people eat soba noodles (thin noodles made with buckwheat) at midnight with their loved ones, as they bid farewell to the old year and welcome the next year. The noodles, thin and long, are believed to represent long life. The noodles are, therefore, slurped whole instead of being bitten. The Japanese also follow another tradition known as the mochitsuki, where families gather to pound mocha (Japanese rice cakes). The cakes are then eaten as a desert after the meal.

The most basic soba dish is mori soba in which boiled, cold soba noodles are eaten with a soya based dipping sauce (tsuyu). Many soba dishes are eaten throughout the year, while others are only available seasonally.

Like pasta, soba noodles are available in dried form in supermarkets, but they taste best if freshly made by hand from flour and water. Soba making has long been a popular hands-on activity for domestic and international travelers. The activity is offered by many craft villages and travel tour companies.

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