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New Year’s Eve has come and gone, and here we are, already three days into the new year. If you were hoping to increase your chances for a lucky year, it’s too late now for most of the folk lore and practices you might have tried!

The Risky Regencies blog has been around since 2005, so we have covered a lot of January beginnings by now. If you’re in the mood, scroll down through our archives list and pick some early January posts at random. Some themes are recurring –for instance, making resolutions for the new year, which Regency people seem to have done just as we do today. But some of the other old customs seem to have fallen by the wayside. In January of 2016 my post included quite a few gathered from a variety of cultures.

Just for fun, below is an excerpt from my 2018 December release, Lord of Misrule. The main characters are traveling on New Year’s Eve and must spend the night at an inn. Nevertheless, they make an attempt to honor a few old customs. How did you spend your New Year’s Eve? Did you try to follow any old practices to influence your year ahead?

“Tell me, what would you all have been doing to celebrate the new year in Little Macclow if I had not spirited you away?” Lord Forthhurst said, introducing a new line of conversation.

“Oh, playing cards or charades, roasting chestnuts, singing or dancing, teasing each other with puzzles and riddles to try our brains,” said Lady Anne.

“Dining on plum puddings and mince pies. Listening for the peal of the bells to tell us the new year has begun,” the Squire added.

“We might have been entertaining any visitors in a similar manner,” Miss Tamworth said. She had resumed her seat and turned her unfathomable blue eyes on him. “I had considered asking you to be our midnight caller.”

“The old first-footer custom?” He knew no one who followed it. Mostly it was practiced up in the northern counties and Scotland. Still, he was flattered. The first person to step into a house after the stroke of midnight was supposed to bring luck and set the tone for a good and prosperous year. He doubted he was a likely candidate for any such thing. “I am honored, but why in heaven’s name would you ask me?”

“Oh, just because it is considered much luckier if the visitor is a handsome man.” She shrugged, her tone utterly off-handed.

He looked for any sign that she was flirting. Catching her eye, he tested her with a devilish grin. “Ah, so you admit that you find me handsome?”

Her frank, clear gaze seemed perfectly in earnest. “I needn’t admit it–I say so quite freely, Lord Forthhurst. It is simply a fact about you, one that must be obvious to anyone with eyes. …”

…“’Tis a shame you’ll not have the opportunity to be first-footer at the vicarage, Lord Forthhurst,” Squire said, rescuing him from having to respond. “The vicar serves a very tasty punch on New Year’s Eve that I suspect you would like. It has rendered many a visitor barely able to make his way home again after indulging.”

“That sounds quite wicked for a vicar. Indeed, I am sorry to forego both the honor and the pleasure.”

A short while later, they decide to leave their private parlor to join in the revelry downstairs in the public room.

“I think we should all go down and celebrate the new year’s arrival with everyone else.” She looked pointedly at Cassie and the viscount. “Did you bring new clothes to wear?”

“New clothes?” Lord Forthhurst tilted his head, looking bewildered. He clearly did not know much about country customs.

“Yes, to bring luck and prosperity in the new year.”

“I see. I’m afraid I did not bring any.” He sounded unconvinced.

“I did not have any to bring,” Cassie admitted.

“Well, I have a splendid idea how to fix that,” Lady Anne declared, her hands sweeping up into the air. “I shall loan Cassie one of my shawls, and Squire can loan Lord Forthhurst one of his cravats. The items will be new–to you, at least. I feel certain that will serve. Oh, do let us get ready, and then go down.”

Belated or not, I and my sister Riskies all wish you the very best in 2020. That includes lots of happy reading!

new-years-countdown-clock I suspect that on New Year’s Day, you have better things to do than reading a blogpost at the Risky Regencies! All the same, I’m here, so whenever you are reading this, I want to say thank you for reading during this past year, and I wish you a new year filled with joy, health, luck and prosperity!

I hope you ate food on New Year’s Eve that might be thought to bring those in the coming year. My guests last night dined on:

Shrimp: symbolizing long life (Japan)

Cheeses: gold colored foods symbolize prosperity and good fortune (Asia & South America)Sweet potato-pumpkin bisque

Soup: sweet potato and pumpkin bisque (sweet and also gold colored, both considered “lucky” for New Year’s)

Pork Tenderloin: pork, and pigs, symbolize both prosperity and moving forward in the new year (Western World) pork tenderloin

Sliced carrots with waterchestnuts: foods that resemble money –coins for instance –are lucky

Parmesan potatoes: gold, again (we added a bit of food coloring), and besides, yummy!

Poppyseed muffins: poppyseeds are considered lucky in Poland.

Bread & butter pickles: coin-shaped, more or less!

For dessert we had plum pudding (with hard sauce) just because we hadn’t used all of it at Christmas, but that fits the tradition of “finishing up old matters” before the year ends. ChristmasPud4

We toasted the new year with champagne, of course. Then just after midnight we each had twelve grapes meant to signify how sweet or sour our 12 months of the year are going to be (Spain, and Spanish influenced countries). I don’t have a clock that strikes (you’re supposed to eat them on the strokes), and we figured we had a better chance of tasting a sweet year if we ate them after the tart champagne!

Mind you, these aren’t Regency customs and beliefs, just ones culled from all over the world. But the universality of some kind of traditions to bring in the new year is quite consistent. In Regency England, country people would be the most likely to observe quaint practices like opening the back door to let the old year pass out at the first strokes of midnight, and then opening the front door as the strokes ended to let the new year in. Or to make a big production over who the “first-footer” (first visitor to set foot in the house) after midnight on New Year’s Eve would be. Or to make certain nothing of substance should leave the house during New Year’s Day –in some locales, housekeepers even retained the dust sweepings and food scraps from the day until January 2!

How did you ring in the new year? Will you do anything special today? Are there old customs or traditions your family observes? However you celebrate, or even if you don’t, I wish you a year full of delightful reading and discovery of many new books and authors for your pleasure! Stay tuned here at the Riskies and we’ll try to help you with that.

New-Years-Eve-2016-Champagne-05

Happy New Year!

Since I’ve been working hard on finishing my balloonist story and can’t read romance while trying to write it, I’ve been catching up on books in other genres, especially those recommended by friends. Of these, my favorites were The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks. To me, there’s something moving and deeply satisfying about each of these.

I’ve also read some outstanding YA novels with my daughter. These had me totally engrossed: the first two books in Mary Jo Putney’s Dark Mirror series and Jane George’s The Mumbo Jumbo Circus. Although settings and styles of these books are very different, both weave in great writing, intriguing characters and magic.

Although it’s not a book or movie, another exciting discovery was hearing up-and-coming pianist Shai Wosner play Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto with the Binghamton Philharmonic. Although he has immense technical talent, he plays with loving attention to every note and phrase, allowing the music to speak, never just showing off. I’ve added a clip of him playing Schumann’s “Carnaval”.

Continuing in the spirit of trying new things, my family and I will once again cook together on New Year’s Eve, trying recipes we’ve never made before. One year we tried making individual Baked Alaskas—a science experiment that sort of blew up but the debris was rather tasty! This year should be easier. The menu is herb stuffed mushrooms to start, bacon wrapped scallops as the main course and for dessert, lemon poppy-seed cake with glaze.

What were your discoveries of 2011? Are you planning anything special for New Year’s Eve? Whatever it is, I hope you have fun and that 2012 brings you much joy!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

And what are you doing to celebrate?

First, I trust you let this man into your house last night. You really should have, you know. His sack carries coal or salt or something else I can’t remember, providing you with plenty for the new year, although chances are in my neighborhood he’d dump the salt/coal and leave with your laptop.

Some particularly dedicated and hardy people celebrate New Year’s Day by going swimming. Outside.

The Chicago Polar Bear Club has these rules:

1. Swimsuits only. No nudity (it’s a family event) and no wetsuits (that’s cheating).
2. Swimmers must go all the way under the water before coming out to be “official.”
3. No whining!

On the left, the Lake View Polar Bears of Chicago in action, chunks of ice and all. Their motto is celebration of shrinkage. Yikes.

This insanity is practiced worldwide. On the right, the Berlin Seals put the old year behind them. It seems to be snowing and swimsuit optional.

Like Eleanor, I don’t really believe in new year’s resolutions. But this year I do want to continue to lose weight (hooray! although recently it’s been a bit of a butterfest), to put the joy back in writing, and to be more generous in my time and resources to others.

How about you? What are you doing today and what are your plans for the new year? And is anyone going swimming today–I’d love to hear from you!

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