# New Year Traditions



## debodun (Dec 31, 2015)

Are there any New Year traditions in your household? 

My family never made a big deal out of New Year. I never remember my parents going out to celebrate it. My dad usually had to work on New Year's day because he got Christmas day off by trading it with someone else who wanted New Year's day off (probably to recover from the previous night's revelry). That's the day we usually took down the tree and other decorations. It always made me sad to think the next Christmas was almost a year away.


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## Butterfly (Dec 31, 2015)

Eating blackeyed peas and cornbread.  Southern tradition has it that doing this brings good luck in the coming year.


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## imp (Dec 31, 2015)

Well, as a kid, I recall the turn of the year bringing new admonitions against "spending money; "we have to save for our old age."

My Dad was 41 when I was born; I remember him mostly as an older man, never young.   imp


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## 911 (Jan 1, 2016)

I live in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, so around here pork and sauerkraut is the meal of the day. My wife also makes spare ribs to go with the pork roast. Eating P&S on New Year's Day is traditional for the PA Dutch and is supposed to bring the person eating it good luck throughout the year. I have found this *NOT* to be true.


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## imp (Jan 1, 2016)

911 said:


> I live in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, so around here pork and sauerkraut is the meal of the day. My wife also makes spare ribs to go with the pork roast. Eating P&S on New Year's Day is traditional for the PA Dutch and is supposed to bring the person eating it good luck throughout the year. I have found this *NOT* to be true.



My sister met a young sailor on leave in 1945, married him, had a baby. His name, her husband, was Phil Bowser, and while we did not know if he was Dutch, he was born and raised in East Brady (PA). I was 5 when my nephew was born, 1947. His Dad was a good man, we all liked him. My sister was not a good mother, took to hanging out with high school hoodlum friends at night, with a husband and infant son at home with us in our house. Phil was crying, I remember it, my Mother talking quietly with him.

Early morning, he wrapped the two-month old kid in a blanket and set off from our home outside Chicago in his old Buick, heading for East Brady. Few days later his mother called, told my own mother she still had several small kids to raise, could not care for little Danny. My sister and mother set out for PA by Greyhound, brought the kid back to Chicago. 

There is a whole lot more to this story, heartwarming, when phil came back to see Dan at 15; it was the second time I saw him weep. My sister was the fault, and we all knew it. Sorry for inserting this off-thread and all. A new year starting brings stinging memories back from old ones.    imp


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