New Year’s Traditions

And the table will be wide. And the welcome will be wide.
And the arms will open wide to welcome us in.
And our hearts will be open wide to receive.
- Jan Richardson


Yesterday, I visited our neighborhood grocery store looking for some last minute items to help us ring in the new year with our kids. As I passed by the picked-through shelves of canned peas and vegetables, the completely empty sections of fresh greens, and the scattered boxes of cornbread mix, I felt a twinge of yearning build within me. Like Thanksgiving and Christmas, we knew New Year’s Day would look different this time around, so I decided earlier in the week that we would just do something simple for the first lunch of 2021 - something the kids would eat - like mac and cheese, spaghetti, or Ramen. But as I passed by those traditional New Year’s foods, I was reminded of all the meals that had kicked off the first day of every year before this one.

For as long as I can remember, my family has gathered at my grandparents’ house to celebrate New Year’s Day. It is a joyful gathering with a table that is set wide with welcome - that is spread wide with delicious food - and that is held wide with love and people and tradition. Before offering the blessing, we take a moment to go around the room giving thanks for what has been and offering blessings of hope for what the year ahead will hold. After this time of reflection and blessing, we eat!

Spread across the table are our traditional New Year’s foods - greens, ham, black-eyed peas, and cornbread to bring health, prosperity and luck in the new year. But to go alongside those, we also have biscuits, turkey, rice, lima beans, corn, and my personal favorite, chicken pastry. It truly is a labor of love - a gift to all who gather. I remember one New Year’s Day, as we were enjoying our food around the table, I asked my grandma to share with me the secret in making her pastry. She quietly leaned over to me and said, “Honey, they sell those in the frozen section right beside the biscuits.” “You mean you don’t make these from scratch?,” I whispered. (I thought she made everything from scratch.) “I used to,” she said, “but now you can buy them from the store and they taste just as good with a lot less worry and mess.”

As I reached the biscuits in the frozen area, I recalled this conversation with my Grandma. The frozen strips of pastry dough were right where she said they would be, so I put a box in my cart and decided I would give it a try. Our traditions have looked very different this year - there are traditions that we have put on hold, traditions that we revisited and remade, there are new traditions that we will carry forward with us, and there are traditions that for our health and benefit we have let go. For all my years, this New Year's meal has nourished my body and my soul. It is one of the traditions I'm holding on to in this season, and I will do my best to share it with my family this year.

There will be no Instagram pictures of this New Year’s meal as I am nowhere near the southern chef my grandma was - and we may still need to add a couple portions of Mac and cheese and Ramen noodles to make it an enjoyable and appetizing experience for all - but today our table will be set wide. The table will be open wide with the laughter and love of our small family gathered around it, it will be set wide with the dishes and traditions spread across and shared together, it will be splattered wide with the full and messy enjoyment that little ones bring to every meal, it will be broken wide with hope for what this New Year holds for each and every one of us - and our hearts will be open wide to receive.


We know that this New Year’s Day will look different for many of you, too. We would love to know how you are creating, remaking or carrying on traditions that are meaningful to you. We invite you to use the social media links below to share with us in a photo or reflection how you are bringing in 2021.


We are grateful that The Welcome Table has brought us together this year. On this first day of a new year, we are wishing you and yours a bright and hope-filled year ahead. If you want to know more about who we are, visit our website.