Seafood on New Year's

Factual Questions
1

Every year my dad has always eaten pickled herring on New Year’s. It’s a tradition he is now trying to figure out the origin of, either eating seafood in general or specifically herring on New Year’s at the strike of midnight. Does anyone have the straight dope on where such a tradition originated and what the significance or superstition is behind it?

Hopefully someone else has heard of it also.

Thanks!

2

I have never heard of it but that tradition surely has to come from Scandinavian ancestry or culture. U.S. Southerners have a similar tradition. It is eating black eyed peas on New Years day and lots of people follow it. I am not sure where that one came from either but it is taken semi-seriously in some places. Supermarkets stock up hard on black eyed peas prior to the New Year and they often still run out.

3

In Latvia (not sure about the other Baltic countries), fish at the new year represent prosperity. I believe it is because the scales resemble coins.

4

Sorry I don’t have an answer, but we always eat oysters and black-eyed peas.

5

I never heard of the herring one. Mom says you must eat cabbage or sour kraut on New Year’s day to have money.

6

I learned about the herring on New Year’s Eve from my grandpa (he was born in 1897 to immigrant parents - they were Jews from the Ukraine). Dad favored the tradition of cabbage on New Year’s Day. Mom, who’s from Texas, taught us the one about black-eyed peas. I used to have a neighbor who swore by navy bean soup - I’ll be cooking up a batch of soup later today. I try to cover all bases, but the results can be rather gaseous, if you know what I mean.

7

Sounds like no one has the dope on it yet. The herring mystery…

8

Don’t bother. It’s a red herring…

<running… ducking… running…>

9

I had never heard of this. I thought I was being creative when I started the tradition at our house of having lobster on New Year’s Eve. It’s the one time per year that we have it, and a very good tradition it is. It’s not too expensive if you go to Asian supermarkets, too.

::checking on our lemon and butter supply::