Why do Americans eat black-eyed peas on New Years Eve?
In Georgia, it’s a tradition to eat black-eyed peas and turnip greens. The peas represent copper and the greens are dollars. We say each pea you eat equals one dollar’s worth of earning, and each portion of turnip greens equals $1,000. http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/holidays/new-year/customs/black-eyed-peas.htm http://missvickie.com/library/newyears.html”>missvickie.com/library/newyears.html This site has several explanations, I happen to like the first one. Grandma Myrtle says that back in the days of the Old South, during the time of Southern gentility, and Northern hostility, our celebrated black eyed peas were used strictly for the feeding of cattle. During the Civil War battle of Vicksburg, the town was under siege for over 40 days. The Yankee soldiers burned all the crops except for the “cowpeas” which they considered weeds. The Union army raided all the food supplies and took everything except the “cow peas” stored for the winter. With no supplies coming in the citizens suf
