Lucky Legumes for New Year’s Day
Black-eyed peas symbolize good luck in many cultures. Eating the good luck legumes on New Year's Day is a tradition of many Southern families.
Gail Piernas-Davenport's Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas teaches K - 4th grade students about this tradition, as well as the New Year traditions of many other cultures.
In Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas, Shanté is distressed when she and her grandmother cannot find the black-eyed peas they need to cook for their New Year's meal. In the process of searching through her neighborhood for the missing peas, Shanté is exposed to the New Year's traditions of other cultures, such as Hogmanay in Scotland and the Hindu Diwali festival.
It is interesting to note that Southern families may have acquired the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day when Sephardic Jews settled in Georgia in the 1730s. It was a long-standing tradition to eat these legumes in celebration of the Jewish New Year, and soon, other communities in the "New World" followed suit.
This is a great book to share with your child, grandchild or reading partner in celebration of this New Year, 2012.
Happy New Year!
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