Cook traditional New Year's food to bring prosperity and good health to family and friends
20 New Year’s Food Traditions for Good Luck in 2025
Onions
In Greece, onions take center stage as a traditional New Year’s food, symbolizing rebirth, fertility and good health. Their many layers represent shedding the old to reveal the fresh start of a new year. Onions are also seen as a symbol of prosperity because they sprout effortlessly, even when ignored—an inspiring reminder of resilience and growth. Whip up a batch of crispy onion rings as part of your New Year’s feast. Not only are they delicious, but they’ll also bring a little extra meaning—and crunch—to your celebration!
Buttered bread
Calling all bread lovers! In Ireland, buttered bread takes the spotlight as a meaningful New Year’s food, symbolizing abundance and the absence of hunger. In fact, New Year’s Day in Ireland is fondly known as the “Day of Buttered Bread.” Want to bring a little Irish charm to your celebration? Try making buttery French bread with a flavorful twist. Combine paprika, celery seed and rich, creamy butter for a dish that’s as delicious as it is symbolic. Yum!Â
Cabbage
Cabbage has been a New Year’s staple for centuries, rooted in Eastern European and German traditions. Its vibrant green color represents financial prosperity, while the long strands in dishes like coleslaw or sauerkraut symbolize longevity and a thriving life.
Looking to add a healthy twist to your New Year’s celebration? Grilled cabbage is a must-try! It’s smoky, flavorful and packed with good fortune—just what you need to start the year off right. Add it to your menu and toast to a prosperous, healthy year ahead!
Doughnuts
Looking for a sweet way to ring in the New Year? Add doughnuts to your celebration! These ring-shaped treats are believed to bring good luck, symbolizing the year coming full circle.
In the Netherlands, people enjoy oliebollen, a delicious fried dough pastry, while in Germany, krapfen—classic jelly-filled doughnuts—are a New Year’s Eve favorite.
Champagne
Champagne is the ultimate drink to toast with on New Year’s Eve! This sparkling classic has long been associated with royalty, prosperity and celebration, making it the perfect way to ring in the new year in style. Try a creative twist with a bubbly champagne punch. It’s festive, fun and easy to customize with your favorite flavors.Â
Collard greens
Collard greens are a late crop mostly grown in the South, so they’re easy to find in the colder months. Supposedly greens are a go-to New Year’s Day food because they resemble money.
Black-eyed peas
Beans, like greens, resemble money; more specifically, they symbolize coins. Traditionally, in the American South, beans are combined with rice and bacon for a lucky New Year’s Eve dish called Hoppin’ John.
Cornbread
Mix and match traditional New Year’s food—fill your plate with black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread—to hopefully make a fortune this year. As the Southern saying goes, “Peas for pennies, greens for dollars and cornbread for gold.”
Soba
In Japan, toshikoshi soba is the traditional New Year’s food of choice. The length of the soup’s soba is said to symbolize a long life, while the buckwheat flour the noodles are made of brings resiliency. Part of the tradition is slurping these noodles since the luck from this New Year’s Day meal runs out if you break or chew the noodle.
Grapes
Make sure to add grapes to your New Year’s food and cheese platter this year. On New Year’s Eve, Spaniards eat a grape for each stroke of midnight, with each representing a page of the calendar ahead. If one grape is bitter, watch out for that month!
Pork
Pork is a lucky New Year’s Day food because pigs move forward when they eat. They are also rotund, symbolizing a fat wallet for the year ahead. And pork is fattier than other types of meat, making this New Year’s Eve food both tasty and a symbol of prosperity.
Ring-shaped cake
Ring-shaped cakes—sometimes with trinkets baked inside—are a symbol of coming full circle, making them a traditional New Year’s food. This practice stems from the Greeks, who make a traditional vasilopita for New Year’s Eve with a hidden coin baked inside. If you get the piece with the coin, you’ll have good luck for a year.
Fish
Fish is believed to be a lucky New Year’s Day food because fish’s scales resemble coins, and they swim in schools, which invokes the idea of abundance. Another reason this became a traditional New Year’s food? Fish swim forward, which represents progress. If you really want good fortune, go with sardines, which are seen as lucky.
Pomegranates
In a Greek tradition, families toss a pomegranate against their front door when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. The more seeds fall out, the more luck and fertility that household will be blessed with. Pop yours in a plastic bag to avoid making a mess, or make your New Year’s party extra cheerful by whipping up pomegranate crostini.
Dumplings
On the day before the Chinese New Year, families will gather to make jiaozi. The dumplings are shaped like gold ingots—the currency used in ancient China—so eating them as a New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day food is tied to financial luck. Try making your own healthy steamed dumplings.
Mandarin oranges
Mandarin oranges are one of the main symbols of Chinese New Year food. Stick with fresh mandarins, not the canned stuff—the fruit itself is said to bring prosperity, and having one with the stem and leaf attached will bring long life and fertility.
Sauerkraut
According to German and Eastern European superstition, ringing in the new year with a heaping plate of sauerkraut means wealth, and the Pennsylvania Dutch have kept up that tradition. The more you eat this traditional New Year’s food, the bigger your bankroll!
Lentils
Italians traditionally would eat lentils for New Year’s Eve dinner. In the past, Romans would give a leather bag of the legumes to their loved ones, in the hope that each would translate to a gold coin in the new year. Try cooking yours into a sweet potato lentil stew. Or double up on your luck and cook these lentils with another New Year’s Day food: pork.
Tamales
Tamales are a traditional Mexican dish many families eat throughout the holiday season. They symbolize generations of familial bonds, as families typically gather to help each other make this delicious holiday dish.
Soft pretzels
Don’t be surprised if you see German Americans eating a glazed soft pretzel on New Year’s. It’s believed that eating a soft pretzel brings good luck into the new year. Who wouldn’t want to kick 2025 off with a sweet (er, salty) snack like this?
Additional reporting by Marissa LaliberteÂ
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Source:
- History.com: “9 Lucky New Year’s Food Traditions”
- NPR: “Chinese New Year: Dumplings, Rice Cakes And Long Life”
- World Affairs Council of Great Houston: “New Year’s Traditions from Around the World”
- Farmer’s Almanac: “Unlock Your Fortune: 7 Fascinating Ways to Boost Your Luck for the Coming Year”
- Taste of Home: “Why Do People Eat Cabbage on New Year’s Day?”
