Traditional New Year’s Food in the US and Around the World
When the clock struck midnight and the calendar turned to 2026, many people around the world celebrated by consuming tradition-rich food. They’ll continue on New Year’s Day with family gatherings.
From pork and sauerkraut, pickled herring, and lentil soup to black-eyed peas, tamales, and grapes, culinary traditions vary from country to country, and even region to region. They carry the same purpose of welcoming good health and fortune, and leaving behind troubles from the year that has passed.
The most iconic food to celebrate the new year in the United States and many European nations is pork and sauerkraut—a dynamic duo that has served as a staple for generations.
Indeed, pigs have long been seen as a symbol of good fortune and progress, according to Schmidt Sausage Haus, a Columbus, Ohio-based family owned business. Established in 1886, it has a restaurant in the city’s German Village, and multiple food trucks that appear at events across Ohio. Its Schmidty’s blog highlights the cultural stories behind German culinary traditions.
“Pigs root forward, never backward, representing positive momentum into the New Year. Cows stand still, chickens scratch backward, but pigs? They move confidently into the future,” according to a Jan. 12, 2025, blog post.
The Pennsylvania Dutch are descendants of German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th and 18th centuries. They popularized the consumption of pork and sauerkraut in the United States.
Kansas City, too, with a strong German heritage, is also known for sauerkraut dishes as reported by local media outlets. Many locally-owned restaurants will feature the dish on New Year’s Day.
The word sauerkraut means “sour cabbage,” and the tangy fermented cabbage dish represents abundance and preservation.
When much of the population lived off their own land decades ago, pork and sauerkraut were timely for New Year’s Day. The cabbage harvest peaks around October, and sauerkraut involves a fermentation process of at least six to eight weeks. Families would can their harvests to have enough food for the winter months, according to a blog post from Stoltzfus Meats, which is based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The butchering of animals also typically happened in late fall or early winter, just in time for fresh roasts for the new year.
Before consuming pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day, it’s a tradition for families to wish each other as much goodness and fortune as the number of shreds of cabbage in the pot.
In northeast Ohio, sauerkraut balls are the New Year’s Day food of choice for many families. They are also a menu staple at restaurants and taverns.
The delicacy includes crumbled pork sausage and cream cheese as binders, with chopped onions and sauerkraut as the main components of the filling. Garlic, parsley, pepper, salt, and yellow mustard are typically mixed in as seasoning.
The balls are often rolled in Italian breadcrumbs, eggs, flour, and milk, and fried in oil.
Some residents of Akron claim that sauerkraut balls originated in their community. In 1996, Akron Beacon-Journal readers voted for it as the city’s official food.
Judy Orr James’s 2022 cookbook “Akron Family Recipes” has an entire chapter on sauerkraut balls, subtitled “It’s an Akron Thing.”
James recognizes, though, that Cleveland was the city where sauerkraut balls first appeared at a restaurant called Gruber’s.
Down South
Down South, black-eyed peas are a New Year’s Day tradition.
Some people suggest that black-eyed peas symbolize the expansion of wealth throughout the year because they swell when cooked. Others cite the old adage, “Eat poor on New Year’s, and eat fat the rest of the year.”
Black-eyed peas are an essential ingredient in Hoppin’ John, a dish slowly simmered with rice and often flavored with smoked pork and spices, served with collard greens and cornbread.
Hoppin’ John is a traditional New Year’s Day choice because the peas are believed to symbolize coins while collard greens and cornbread represent money and gold.
In some homes, people add a coin to the pot or serve the dish with a coin hidden in the peas. If you find the coin in your bowl, it is said you will have extra good luck in the year ahead.
Here are some traditional New Year’s Day foods outside of the United States:
Spain
Bowls of grapes adorn the tables of living rooms in homes across Spain as midnight approaches on New Year’s Eve. When the clock strikes midnight, people eat one grape with each chime symbolizing good luck for each month of the new year.
The tradition is called “las doce uvas de la suerte,” or the 12 grapes of luck.
In large cities like Madrid, people crowd public squares with grapes in hand and aim to swallow all 12 before the final bell rings. Not finishing all 12 grapes is said to bring bad fortune for the year ahead.
Canada
Tourtiere is a French Canadian meat pie typically served on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.
It includes a plethora of flavors that include beef, pork, allspice, onions, potatoes, and a buttery, flaky crust. There are multiple variations of the dish.
Greece
In Greece, pomegranates are smashed at the door to represent fertility and prosperity. The seeds are scattered to symbolize the family’s good fortune for the new year.
Vasilopita, or St. Basil’s cake, is a favorite New Year’s Day food in Greek homes. It looks like a simple cake, but a coin or trinket is typically baked inside.
According to tradition, the head of the household cuts into the vasilopita just after midnight on Dec. 31. The first slice is for Jesus, the next for the Virgin Mary, the third for the house and then for each member of the family in order of age.
Jan. 1 is also the Feast of St. Basil, celebrated to commemorate the early Christian theologian.
The person who finds the coin or trinket is said to have St. Basil’s blessing for the year ahead.
Japan
Toshikoshi soba means “year-crossing buckwheat noodles.” In Japan, New Year’s Eve is celebrated with a warm bowl of thin soba noodles served in a broth and often topped with green onions or tempura.
The long noodles signify the wish for a long life. The noodles are fragile and easy to cut, which represents letting go of the past year’s challenges.
Some say the noodles symbolize resilience because they break easily when bitten, representing a clean break from the challenges of the year prior.
Italy
A traditional New Year’s Eve feast in Italy features a bowl of stewed lentils topped with slices of cotechino (Italian pork sausage) or zampone (stuffed pig’s trotter). The lentils are typically simmered until tender in a broth with carrots and onions and served when the clock strikes midnight.
Lentils are said to represent prosperity and luck because their shape resembles a coin.
Scandinavia
In countries like Norway and Sweden, a forkful of pickled herring is traditionally eaten at the beginning of the new year.
The small silvery fish is cured in brine and vinegar with onions, spices, and sugar.
Pickled herring is also a new year favorite in Germany and Poland.
The Herring Quartet at Smorgas Chef, done four ways: pickled, in mustard, in dill and cream, and in tomato sauce. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)
In Denmark and Norway, Kransekake (Norwegian Almond Ring Cake) is frequently served on New Year’s Eve.
Translated as wreath cake, the delicacy is made of marzipan doughnuts or cakes which are stacked on top of each other and glued together with icing to resemble a tower. Some even have a bottle of wine at the center.
Ireland
The Irish have a tradition of banging the walls of their houses with bread to chase away bad luck and evil spirits, and then gathering to eat the bread to bring in the new year.
Bannock is a traditional unleavened bread often made with dried currants or raisins.
The bread is also part of Scottish New Year heritage.
Netherlands
On New Year’s Eve in the Netherlands, families set out a platter of Oliebollen, or oil balls. The fried dough balls are stuffed with currants or raisins and dusted with powdered sugar. Eating them is said to ward off evil spirits and offer protection for the year ahead.
Mexico
The arrival of the new year in Mexico is traditionally celebrated with steaming tamales, which are pockets of corn dough filled with pork or chicken, wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves, and steamed.
Platters of tamales are served as a part of the late-night feast on New Year’s Eve.
The preparation of tamales is time-consuming, so each person in the family takes on a role, like preparing the filling and wrapping. The process evokes togetherness among many Mexican families because of the time involved in making the tamales.
–By Jeff Louderback | Epoch Times News Service
