PREPARING FOR THE NEW YEAR

Another year has come and gone.  It seems that the older I get, the faster the years go by.

I've never been one to really make new year's resolutions but this year I'm going to do something a little different.  I want to do all I can to bring happiness and prosperity into my life.

I've found a few superstitions to follow for my new year.

1. Eating black-eyed peas and greens.  I've opened a can of black eyed peas and eaten a spoonful or two but I've never made them from scratch.  This year, I'm going all out and making Sausage and Black Eyed Peas (recipe to follow after new years if it turns out good).  I've also never eaten greens for the new year.  I'm going to try this too but need to find a good recipe.  Eating them brings good luck and financial prosperity. You are to eat the peas with greens for prosperity. The peas represent good luck and the greens represent money.
2. Nothing goes out of the house, or you will be losing things during the upcoming year. Don’t take out the trash or food or anything, if your trash needs emptying, do it before midnight or on January 2nd. If you have food or anything to take somewhere on New Years day, have it outside or at their house already. (I've never heard this one before.  Good to know.  I've always taken dishes to other houses.)
3. Kissing at midnight. Kiss someone dear to you at midnight, this will ensure affection for the next 12 months. If you happen to be alone at midnight, kissing the dog or cat would certainly work.
4. Don’t cry, don’t cry on New Years day, this could bring unhappiness for the next year. So don’t cry even if your favorite team loses in a bowl game. Be upbeat and happy as well.
5. Don’t wash clothes. The dirty clothes can wait until January 2nd. Some super-cautious won’t even wash the dishes on New Years day, I need to go and find the paper plates now. (I like this one.  I'll use any excuse to not do laundry!)
6. No bare cupboards, fill up the cupboards before New Years day, otherwise that could be the way of the New Year. (My cupboards are rarely bare since I tend to buy sale items in bulk.)
7. Money, don’t lend money or precious items and don’t pay back loans either. To do so means you will be paying out money all year long. Also fill all of your wallets with money since that ensures prosperity for the New Year.
8. Open the doors at midnight as this will let out all the bad from the previous year. Now that’s an easy one to do unless its 30 below out, this will let out the bad before the good can come in on New Years day. (This one is new to me too.  My husband will have yet another reason to think I'm nuts!)
9. Loud noises, make some noise. This will scare away the evil spirits from entering your life in the next year. I like this one, it makes sense and it’s fun but you need to be careful though since too much loud noise and the cops might show up, and that might not be good for the New Year. Maybe just one yell and two firecrackers.
10. Don’t break anything, you should try very hard to not break anything, especially a mirror, as that could be doubly bad as breaking a mirror on any other day, so try not to break anything. And this is another good reason not to do the dishes on New Years Day.
11. Work, try and do something work related on New Years Day, just a token or small amount of work, if you do too much work related stuff, then it might not be so good. This one is only for those who have the day off, I wouldn’t think fireman and others would care for this superstition.
12. First person entering your home, this superstition is about how th
    
    
    e first person who enters your home in the New Year will influence the year you’re about to have. Ideally this person should be tall, dark and good looking. This is a real superstition but I think it came out of an old Cosmo magazine article.
13. Which way the wind blows, there isn’t a lot we can do about the weather, but superstition holds that if the wind is out of the South there will be prosperous times ahead. The wind out of the East means famine and calamities and out of the North means a bad year for weather. A little odd but out of the West means plenty of milk and fish. Calm winds means a prosperous and joyful year for all.  (My predicted weather at this point is AM CLOUDS/PM SUN/WIND  15°Low   34°high  PRECIP 0%  WIND WSW AT 8MPH.   
Does that mean prosperous milk and fish?