“My point in publishing these stories in ‘Jubilee’ was to be able to tell a broader story about African Americans and New Year’s Eve,” Ms. Their celebrations included a menu of Hoppin’ John, collard greens with hog jowls, and ribs. 31, 1862 - or Freedom’s Eve - enslaved people in the South Carolina Lowcountry gathered in churches to await news of their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation, which was to be signed on New Year’s Day 1863. The first documented Black New Year’s celebration is recounted in Toni Tipton-Martin’s “ Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking.” In the book, she shares the origins of Watch Night, when Black Americans congregate at church for song, praise and prayer before the stroke of midnight. Miller said.īlack and Southern traditions eventually became inextricable. “When people abandon superstitions because they just seem antiquated, that creates a space for new associations to emerge,” Mr. As white Americans looking to take on a wholly American identity began to reject European customs, Black people found ways to transform those customs. In regions of the country influenced by the British, collards or kale might be served on New Year’s Day, while in states like Louisiana, where there was a stronger German influence, people often enjoyed cabbage. Geography also played a role in the variety of interpretations that emerged. Miller said, “but you can see this process of cultural diffusion, borrowing, appropriation, all of those things that were happening in previous centuries, to the point where it coalesces into the tradition we have now.” The forced migration of enslaved Africans to North America and their interactions with European colonists led to a convergence of customs.

West African spiritual practices often revolved around deities who had favorite foods like black-eyed peas, which are native to the continent.

But this idea that the first day of the calendar year - and doing something on that day - would bring good luck, to my knowledge, doesn’t exist in West African societies prior to European contact.” In West Africa, he added, “there were certainly auspicious days. In Italy, for example, lentils - said to resemble coins - are cooked down with pork and served for luck. That cooking method of long, low and slow, and with the potlikker being consumed, is a very different thing.”Īnd celebrating on the first day of the year, is more of a global tradition, Mr. The Africanism is in the cooking of them - not in the green itself. Harris, the author of “High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey From Africa to America.” “They became part of the foodways of African Americans. “Collards is a corruption of colewort - colewort is any non-heading cabbage,” said Dr.

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