These 20 New Year’s Foods Are Guaranteed To Bring You Good Luck In 2025
Get ready to eat 12 grapes at midnight...

Who wants to start a new year off on the wrong foot? Not us! Especially at New Year’s, when it is NOT the time for feeling unlucky. Which is why you should join us in attempting to cram as many lucky foods into our New Year’s as possible to guarantee better luck next year. Even if you’re not superstitious, we think there’s no harm in having a little fun with traditions that have been followed around the world for centuries. What, you couldn’t use a little more health, happiness, and prosperity in the form of, say, dumplings and pretzels? That’s what we thought, us too! We collected our favorite recipes to go with each good luck food here, so you can have the fortunate feast of a lifetime this New Year’s.
We’re all for eating as many of these foods as possible, but if you’d like to get more specific with what you usher into your year, we’ve got you. Looking for prosperity? As Southern tradition dictates, black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread represent pennies, dollars, and gold, respectively, so eating them together on New Year’s will keep your purse full all year long. Dumplings are also an important part of traditions to welcome in prosperity from around the world, from Chinese 餃子 (jiao zi) to Russian pelmeni. They take a bit of effort to make them and are the perfect activity for you and your family to work on together during the between-Christmas-and-New-Year's limbo.
Looking for more protein with your prosperity? Try incorporating pork or lentils into your meal. Pigs are big and they root forward (rather than backward like chickens), whereas lentils expand a ton when cooked—they both represent abundance and progress in the New Year.
Just looking for some good old-fashioned good fortune? Try the Spanish tradition of eating 12 good luck grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve—one for every month of the year. In Ireland, one tradition involves banging bread against a door frame to chase away bad luck, while another invites good luck in by sharing the baking bounty with friends, loved ones, and neighbors. We say give both a try! You could also nosh on round sweets like donuts, cookies, and cakes to bring your luck full circle. Now there’s a tradition that’s easy to get behind.
Want even more New Year's Eve inspiration? Check out our favorite New Year's Eve appetizers, our best New Year's Eve desserts, and our top New Year's Eve drinks too.

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