PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) — What meal do you enjoy on New Year’s Day? If it’s pork and sauerkraut, you’re among many in Pennsylvania who celebrate the tradition.
Why do we eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day?
The combination of slow-cooked pork and sauerkraut is believed to bring good luck among other things for the upcoming year. It is a Germanic tradition brought over to America by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
For centuries Germans would go around and wish each other as much wealth as the number of shreds of cabbage in the sauerkraut before sitting down for dinner and wish a “prosit neujahr,” meaning “may the new year turn out well,” according to the German Food Guide.
The pig has been a long-lasting symbol of good luck in German culture, and poultry is frowned upon, especially on New Year’s Day. In Germany, there is a superstition that anyone who eats poultry on New Year’s Eve or Day loses their happiness. This is because it is believed that all good luck and happiness fly away with the bird’s feathers.
The Pennsylvania Dutch then brought this tradition to the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries. Pork was believed to bring good luck because “the pig roots forward” for its food, as opposed to the backward scratching of an animal like a chicken. The Germans also believed that if the pork was rich in fat, it would signify prosperity in life, according to Stoltzfus Meats, a Pa. Dutch food company.
Although sauerkraut can take on a yellow color after the fermenting period, it originally grows with a natural green color. This green color signifies financial prosperity in the new year for anyone who eats it.
Hog butchering and cabbage harvesting were at peak season throughout the fall and winter, making it the perfect meal for the holiday season. Cabbage was harvested usually around the end of October and fermented for six to eight weeks to create sauerkraut.
Some other popular dishes in the United States for the holiday include black-eyed peas, representing wealth and fortune, long noodles, which are believed to bring a long life and salmon, which is meant to represent progress and prosperity.
Whatever dish you enjoy to ring in 2024, may you find progress and prosperity!
