The first meal of the year

If you want to bring luck and fortune into your life in the new year, you'll be dining on lentils, leafy vegetables, rice and oranges today. Or so they say.

Here's a look at some of the traditional "good luck" food as compiled by Kathleen Purvis of the Charlotte Observer:

BEANS AND PEAS:  Black-eyed peas in the South, lentils in Brazil, green lentils in Italy and Hungary. Some say it’s because they resemble coins. But it’s also very ancient. Since dried beans swell when they are cooked, they have always represented getting more. 

GREEN LEAFY THINGS: Collards in the South, cabbage in Korea (kimchi), Bosnia, Croatia and Germany (sauerkraut). Southerners think green leaves represent dollars, but connections to leafy greens date to cultures that didn’t have green dollar bills. It probably has more to do with ancient beliefs that green is lucky because of its connection to spring and new growth.

EGG ROLLS: Egg rolls and stacks of spring rolls represent gold bars in Asian cultures.

FISH: Herring, pickled and not pickled, in Germany, Scandinavia, Poland; cod in Denmark and Italy. Fish stand for prosperity in a lot of places, because of the need for a good catch or from the idea of hauling in riches. Asian cultures also serve fish with the head and tail on, to represent a complete life.

ORANGES: Anything that looks like gold represents riches in Asian cultures.

PORK: Stands for prosperity and abundance in many cultures, from Eastern to Western. There are several theories, but the most common is that because pigs root while moving forward, they represent moving forward and gaining riches. (Associated with bad luck: Cows, which stand still to eat, chickens, which scratch backward, and lobsters, which move backward.)

POMEGRANATES: The round seeds represent coins in Turkey; the vivid red color and the multitude of seeds are lucky, too.

RISOTTO: In the Piedmont region of Italy. Rice swells when you cook it, so it symbolizes getting more.