Southern New Year's Tradition
"Greetings from the South! I thought I'd take a minute
to tell the story. It seems that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's
Day is mainly a Southern tradition. Here's why....... During the Civil
War, the Union soldiers would often raid and pillage the Southern
farms. It was a common practice to burn the crops, but the Yanks would
always leave the feed crops to use for their own horses. At that time,
black-eyed peas were grown in the north as a feed crop for livestock.
(Some Yanks still call them "cow peas".) As as result, this particular
crop was left alone. After the takeover of the farms, the soldiers
would use the farm houses as headquarters for their operations. The
women and children would be forced to flee into the woods. After the
residences were abandoned by the soldiers, the farm folks would come
out of hiding to re-inhabit the homes. Since the soldiers would take
the food from the houses, the only thing left to eat was "cow peas".
Occasionally, some bones or undesirable cuts of meat would be left
hanging in the smokehouses. Forced to survive on what was available,
the women would take the peas and meat scraps and boil them into a
soup. This tasty dish was often the only thing that kept them alive
until their sons and husbands returned from battle. Considering themselves
lucky to be alive, they gave the credit to the lowly peas. From then
on, the black-eyed pea was eaten to bring good luck at the beginning
of each year, and has since been known as "the pea that saved the
South. Hope you enjoyed the story. I'd be curious if anyone has a
different version." -- tully@brightok.net
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