Many people in Italy eat lentils at midnight on New Year's Eve as a symbol of prosperity.
Lentils are associated with coins because of their small, round shape. Eating them at the transition to the new year is therefore linked with hopes for wealth and abundance. A classic Italian New Year's meal pairs lentils with cotechino, a cooked pork sausage, or with zampone, a stuffed pig's trotter.
The custom is especially prominent in northern and central Italian food traditions, though New Year's menus vary widely by region and household. Pork can symbolize abundance because pigs were historically associated with plentiful food and the ability to provide meat.
The lentils are not a prediction of actual financial success and are not required in every Italian household. Their meaning is ceremonial and folkloric. Similar round-food prosperity traditions exist in other countries, but Italy's lentil-and-pork pairing is a distinctive New Year's combination.