My 2017: Welcoming the New Year~ Southern Style!

I live in Atlanta Georgia USA and the way Southerners celebrate New Years is to eat blackeye peas, greens, and cornbread.

In my lifetime,I have heard many reasons why we eat these specific foods onNew Year's Day.

One of my favorite stories is that during the American Civil War, when General Sherman came through and burned down MY town, he also burned the fields on his way to the sea at Savannah. In his ignorance, he left the blackeye pea fields because he deemed them unfit for human consumption and only good for animal fodder. He just didn't know a cook who knew how to cook them proper. And they are eaten on New Years's Day to remember those lost in the war.

Whether that is true or not is debatable. I am inclined to disbelieve it because we have confederate memorial day to remember the southern soldiers who fought and died in that war.

The peas represent pennies.

The most common folklore / wives tale is that if you eat the peas on #NewYear'sDay then your coin money in the coming year will be proportionate to how many peas you eat. The more you eat, the more coin money you will have.

Greens are paper currency

They represent dollars. The more greens you eat , the more dollars you will have in the coming year. Greens can be collard greens, turnip greens, kale, cabbage, spinach, or even salad greens.

Cornbread is gold!

I think it is from the golden color but in keeping with the wife's tale... the more cornbread you eat, the more gold you will have in the coming year.

So it is all about the money and prosperity.

Or is it?

MY theory is that the expense of thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, Christmas presents, parties, and New Year Eve celebrations put a burden on family fianances and come the new year, money is tight, and these foods are quite inexpensive.

The reward is just incentive to make it more palatable. I personally love them all, especially with tomatoes, onion, and porkchops!

I made my own new traditional addition this year. The red disk is a slice of a root vegetable called a beet. They are both sweet and savory. They are very healthy for you and are best steamed...

You GOT IT!
For me they represent
CRYPTOCURRENCY!

How cool it that?

*Special thanks to @anomadsoul for this contest and @blocktrades for their support.

May you all have a very safe, prosperous, steemy and Happy New Year!!