Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Salt, Bread, and Silver
Happy New Year!
As per my family’s tradition, I sent my husband out in the sub-zero temperatures just after midnight to retrieve the “New Year’s Bucket,” a container holding salt, silver, and bread, which I set out on the back stoop on New Year’s Eve.
Did I mention that my husband is a good sport?
The “New Year’s Bucket” is a tradition that, according to family lore, my Great-great Grandmother, Hannah Phillips, brought with her when she emigrated from Wales ca. 1881. According to custom, the members of the household collect salt, silver, and bread in a bucket and place it outside on New Year’s Eve; at the stroke of midnight, or shortly thereafter, the ‘head-of-house’ brings in the bucket. The coins are gathered and donated to charity; the salt and bread is spread on the ground—salt to the earth, bread to her wildlife. The whole process is about giving—showing appreciation for community, respect for nature, and reciprocity with the earth.
Of course, it is also suggested that the reward for this first act of the New Year is the blessing of a plentiful and prosperous year: that the family will always have enough yet will be free from avarice and that they will enjoy good health, plentiful crops, and great joy.
I have celebrated nearly every New Year with this tradition. This year, I didn’t have a satisfactory bucket, so we placed the salt, silver, and coin in a wooden bowl made by my grandfather—a gifted woodcrafter—from Pennsylvania cherry grown and harvested on our family’s land. It seemed an appropriate vessel for a tradition borne of the same family who tended the tree and crafted the bowl, and it made ‘home’ feel a little closer to home. When I spoke with my Grandmother this morning and told her about carrying on the tradition in this way, she was clearly pleased.
I’d say that’s a pretty good way to start the New Year.
Here’s wishing you plenty of salt, bread, and silver of your own in the coming year!
As per my family’s tradition, I sent my husband out in the sub-zero temperatures just after midnight to retrieve the “New Year’s Bucket,” a container holding salt, silver, and bread, which I set out on the back stoop on New Year’s Eve.
Did I mention that my husband is a good sport?
The “New Year’s Bucket” is a tradition that, according to family lore, my Great-great Grandmother, Hannah Phillips, brought with her when she emigrated from Wales ca. 1881. According to custom, the members of the household collect salt, silver, and bread in a bucket and place it outside on New Year’s Eve; at the stroke of midnight, or shortly thereafter, the ‘head-of-house’ brings in the bucket. The coins are gathered and donated to charity; the salt and bread is spread on the ground—salt to the earth, bread to her wildlife. The whole process is about giving—showing appreciation for community, respect for nature, and reciprocity with the earth.
Of course, it is also suggested that the reward for this first act of the New Year is the blessing of a plentiful and prosperous year: that the family will always have enough yet will be free from avarice and that they will enjoy good health, plentiful crops, and great joy.
I have celebrated nearly every New Year with this tradition. This year, I didn’t have a satisfactory bucket, so we placed the salt, silver, and coin in a wooden bowl made by my grandfather—a gifted woodcrafter—from Pennsylvania cherry grown and harvested on our family’s land. It seemed an appropriate vessel for a tradition borne of the same family who tended the tree and crafted the bowl, and it made ‘home’ feel a little closer to home. When I spoke with my Grandmother this morning and told her about carrying on the tradition in this way, she was clearly pleased.
I’d say that’s a pretty good way to start the New Year.
Here’s wishing you plenty of salt, bread, and silver of your own in the coming year!
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