Lentils are traditionally associated with prosperity at New Year’s celebrations in Italy.
Italian New Year meals often pair lentils with cotechino, a seasoned pork sausage, or with zampone, a stuffed pig’s trotter. Lentils resemble small coins, so eating them symbolizes hopes for wealth and financial good fortune in the coming year.
The tradition is especially associated with northern and central Italian culinary customs, though New Year menus vary from region to region and household to household. Cotechino and zampone are strongly linked with the celebration, but the lentils themselves are the food connected to the coin-like prosperity symbolism.
This custom is sometimes simplified abroad as “Italian New Year’s sausage,” which misses the central symbolic role of the lentils. It is also separate from the Spanish custom of eating twelve grapes, even though both foods are eaten near midnight or on New Year’s Day for luck.