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Why So Many People Eat Cabbage On New Year's Day By Erica Martinez Dec. 9, 2025 7:00 am EST

Growing up, I remember eating tamales on New Year's Day, but it was mostly because my family made so many during Christmas that we were happily still gobbling them up by the end of the year. My mom said that her mother made menudo on the first day of the year, but she remembers it benefitted her uncles who ate the soup to defeat their hangovers. For the most part, though, people eat specific foods for New Year's because they symbolize things like good fortune, prosperity, and luck; elements they hope will come to fruition in the year to come. One such food that millions enjoy for the New Year is cabbage.

Cabbage is thought to symbolize money because of its green colo

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