New Year’s Traditions in and out of the Kitchen

Photo: homemade cranberry sauce; it’s really easy to make.



I am fascinated with the traditions that develop around holidays like New Year’s. I wrote about how In Guatemala City locals set off fire crackers on Christmas. Well they also set them off on New Year's. I found a source that talked about similar traditions in the Mississippi Delta. On New Year’s Day black families would eat a traditional dinner including black-eyed peas and shoot out the old year and shoot in the New Year with their guns. “All over you could hear guns going off,” says one Delta native. Then on New Year’s Day black folks would eat right at twelve noon insuring a favorable new year. The men might go hunting while the women folk stayed in the kitchen making deserts, candied yams, and homemade cranberry sauce. My friend Bryant Terry, author of Vegan Soul, http://basicbooks.com/perseus/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0738212288, insists that making homemade cranberry sauce is very easy. Here are recipes you can use for your New Year’s feast:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cranberry_sauce/

http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/sides/cranberry-sauce.htm