LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Many dinner tables this weekend will feature black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
It's been a tradition for years, but how exactly did this uniquely southern tradition start?
After the ball droips and the sun rises for 2023, it's likely one of your first meals of the new year will feature black eyed peas or collard greens?
But, why is that?
According to author and food scholar Adrian Miller, eating black eyed peas on New Years Eve or New Years Day promises good luck, health, and abundance.
The bean has taken the form of good fortune and has even adopted a few different aliases along the way.
Capie Peck, of Trios restaurant, said there's been several names for the bean over the years.
"Black eyed peas are called many different things. Are they a purple hull pea, is it a field pea, [lady] peas are smaller," Peck said.
According to Peck, during the Civil War, Union soldiers raided lands of confederate families taking everything except the peas and salt pork because it wasn't for human consumption.
Those peas and the salt pork fed the confederate families, which is how it developed its reputation for good luck.
She also said it's not just about eating the black-eyed peas; you need to eat them a certain way.
"You're supposed to eat one pea for every day of the year to insure that you have good luck and prosperity."