In Time For New Years. New Orleans tradition for serving the best beans. You will becoming back for more. Easy to cook and easy to enjoy. Famous New Orleans Black Eyed Peas. Directions on package to experience a taste of New Orleans and the South. Southerners believe eating Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day will bring them prosperity and good luck thru out the year. The traditional meal also includes collards, mustards, turnips and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.Cornbread also often accompanies this meal.Another suggested beginning of the tradition dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General Sherman, typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they could not carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and did not steal or destroy these humble foods