Good Luck With That: A New Year’s Food Gallery

Superstitions, signs, and omens surround birth, death, and marriage in every culture, but they really get amped up when we turn over the calendar to start a new year.

Naturally, many of the rituals to ward off bad times include eating certain foods. Americans may eat greens that look vaguely like paper money to ensure a prosperous year ahead, and the Japanese may eat buckwheat noodles, which are easily cut, to symbolize a break with the past. Pork is a favorite good-luck dish in many societies, because the animal roots forward when looking for food; it doesn’t scratch the ground in a backwards motion, as chickens do.

So whatever food rituals you choose to help ring in 2016, may they bring you health, happiness, and delicious meals for years to come.