Three hundred sixty-five days have passed again. As the New Year approached, I had no idea what would happen to me that midnight. But I did know some things that would be a part of it. I like to stick with traditions – I stay up to see the year turn, I make a toast at midnight, I sing “Auld Lang Syne,” and I make my first meal of the new year pork and sauerkraut or black- eyed peas and hog jowl.

But as I picked up my food at the grocery store this weekend, I really started thinking about all this. Sure, I stick with my traditions, but I have no idea why these things are traditional in the first place. What do they really mean?

The tradition of staying up to see the year turn dates back at least as far as the mid-19th century. The Moravians popularized the tradition of “Watch Night,” where the religious community would give thanks for the blessing of the past year and pray for their continuance in the next. It may be related to the practice of holding a wake for the deceased, sort of ushering the old year through its death and rebirth as the new year. Toasting at midnight is just another aspect of the wish for blessings in the new year. Watch Night has also been a very big deal for many African-American communities. New Year’s Day 1863 marked the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation.

OK, wow. So here I was thinking that you just stayed up late to watch “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Dick Clark” and watch the ball drop at midnight. I’ve learned otherwise. By the way, Dick Clark has hosted New Year’s Rockin’ Eve from Times Square for 34 years, and big bander Guy Lombardo had hosted a similar show for the older set since 1954.

It was Lombardo’s broadcast from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City that popularized the song “Auld Lang Syne” in America. The lyrics to the song were written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in the 18th century, and the title translates roughly to “Days Gone By” or “Once Upon a Time”. Burns claimed that he merely recorded the words, but it was a common thing for a poet to attribute his works to tradition. While it is generally believed that “Auld Lang Syne” was at least mostly produced by Burns, the song is similar to much older tunes and poems. Historically, it has been used throughout the English-speaking world to celebrate transitional moments, particularly the passing of the year.

Pork seems to be a popular good luck meal in many cultures. Germans have considered pigs to be lucky since the days of the Teutons, when the animals were sacrificed to ensure fertility. Today pigs in general are still considered symbols of good luck in the German-speaking world, although we just focus on the food in America. Of course, the large number of German immigrants who have settled here over the years have helped to cement this perennial tradition of eating pork on New Year’s, particularly with sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is a pickled cabbage dish, and the cabbage supposedly is thought to be lucky because of its green color and link to prosperity.

Similarly, black-eyed peas are traditionally consumed for good luck on New Year’s Day in the American South. Three hundred sixty-five peas are eaten to ensure prosperity on every day of the year. These, too, are accompanied by pork, usually in the form of hog jowl (like thick bacon). Often these ingredients are combined in a dish with rice and served with collard greens, which also represent good monetary fortune. Historians say that the tradition of black-eyed peas also dates back to the Civil War, when Union soldiers took much of the food from the South, but left the peas (they were considered inedible animal feed).

So now that we know too much about why we do what we do, maybe we should get back to celebrating. A new quarter is about to start for OSU – isn’t that something to celebrate?

Elizabeth Thomas is a senior in anthropological sciences. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].