New Year Traditions in North Carolina

There are many New Year Traditions in North Carolina that have been evolved from the superstitions and customs practiced by the early ancestors. Brass town, a city of western North Carolina, drops a possum at the midnight of New Years Eve. The possum is lowenavy in a plexiglass pyramid. At Mt. Olive, a three-foot, lighted pickle goes for a swim in the briny deep.

For good luck in the New Year, the first thing one consumes on New Year's Day is the black-eyed pea. Some say the custom of consuming black-eyed peas dates back to the pharaohs. Others say it started in Vicksburg, Virginia, during the Civil War when there was a dearth of food inhabitants was lucky to have cowpeas. In some parts there is a custom of cooking a rich bean soup called Hoppin' John, made of black-eyed peas, spicy sausages and tomato sauce.