It’s a brand new year. It’s a time to start fresh and think ahead. And just in case you haven’t given it much thought, it’s a perfect time to try some New Year’s traditions to see if they change your life, or at least change your luck.

One tradition is to give everybody a handsel. A handsel is simply a small gift for good luck. But if you tell people you are giving them a New Year’s handsel, they will be so impressed by your vocabulary that they won’t care what the gift is.

Another tradition is to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day. This is also thought to bring good luck. If enough people do it, it will definitely bring good luck…to the black-eyed pea farmers. For dessert, you might eat a cake with a surprise baked inside it. This tradition goes all the way back to ancient times. The person who gets the piece with the surprise (usually a coin or trinket) will have good luck all year. 

But what if you don’t believe in all that nonsense? What if you think of New Year’s Day as just another day…with a different date? Does that make you a cynical old grump? 

Yes. But you have a lot of company. As one guy put it, “There’s all this ‘year in review’ and top ten stuff, but really, were you asleep all year? Didn’t you live through it too? What’s the point of looking back?”

Some people don’t believe in luck. Some believe in it, but don’t believe you can do anything about it. Luck is luck, and it will fall on you or it won’t. Period. These people have never won anything. Probably because they’re so busy not believing in luck that they never try anything, and if you never try anything you sure won’t get anything. It seems like people with bad luck make their own.

But whether you believe in luck or not, whether you eat black eyed peas on New Year’s or not…no matter what you do, here’s the facts. It is a brand new year. You can do whatever you want with it. You can make it a big deal or you can ignore it. The interesting thing is, you can also do this every other day of
the year.