There are loads of traditions around the world you can incorporate into a New Year’s Eve dinner, with many even supposed to bring luck. In Spain, for instance, you eat twelve grapes, one with each chime of the clock at midnight, to ensure twelve months of happiness in the coming year.
In the American South, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread are eaten as symbols of wealth (coins, green money, and gold), and in Chile lentils are eaten for luck.
In Romania, one tradition says you should eat fish on New Year’s Eve, so you “go through the new year like a fish in water”.
My personal favourite, however, is Japan’s Toshikoshi soba – New Year’s Eve noodles – a simple dish of buckwheat noodles in a hot dashi broth. Long noodles symbolise the crossing from one year to the next (or a long and happy life), while some people say that the easily broken noodles symbolise letting go of the regrets of the past year.
A helpful article: 29 Realistic New Year’s Eve Recipes That Are Just A Tiny Bit Fancy
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emmacooke24/new-years-eve-2021-ideas
