New Year's Traditions/Superstitions at the No Elephant home

[No Elephants]

The bad news for Boston is that it's 15 degrees as I type, with a wind chill of -3. It is supposed to get to the 20s this evening, though. The good news is that First Night ice sculptures won't melt.

I can't be posting today because I have to make sure that I've thrown out everything that needs discarding to make way for nice, new things in 2014, as in "out with the old, in with the new."

I have to finish my cleaning, in hopes that the brand New Year feels comfortable in my home.

I also decorate with symbols of prosperity, like gold and silver candles.

Because everyone knows that noise chases away evil, at midnight, there will be music, noisemakers, cheering and clapping. That way, baby New Year will arrive evil-free.

New year food superstititions conflict. One is that you should eat on New Year the way you wish to be able to eat all year long. Another is that eating humbly on New Year, a dish like chick peas (or pigeon peas) and rice (aka Hoppin' John) ensures that you will eat "high on the hog" the rest of the year. ("High on the hog" itself being a contrast from the least expensive parts of the hog or pig, like feet and testicles.)

Another food superstition is that eating things that look like gold (e.g., cornbread, chick peas), and greenbacks (any green food, like greens or cabbage) and coins (round foods, like lentils) mean prosperity in the New Year.

To resolve the conflict, my New Year's meal used to be Hoppin' John with a side of spinach and caramelized (golden) onions for lunch and something relatively expensive, like filet mignon for dinner. Then, I found out that rice contains lots of arsenic. So, this year lunch will probably be lentil soup with spinach or escarole. I don't especially enjoy corn bread, so butter or olive oil on French or Italian bread will have to do for a gold look-alike.

Today and tomorrow, I will serve on dinnerware with a bit of gold trim. The gold trim is the kind that you have to hand wash, not the very shiny kind that survives the dishwasher, so I'm not sure how lucky that is.