Many Italians eat lentils on New Year's Eve as a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
Lentils are associated with coins because their small, round, flattened shape resembles money. Eating them at the transition into the new year is therefore understood as a wish for financial abundance. They are commonly served with cotechino or zampone, traditional Italian pork products, especially in northern and central Italy.
The custom is linked to the broader European practice of eating foods that symbolize prosperity, fertility, or good fortune. Lentils are practical as well as symbolic: they are nutritious, inexpensive, and well suited to hearty winter dishes.
Recipes and regional customs vary, so not every Italian household celebrates in exactly the same way. The food is not a literal guarantee of wealth, and the tradition is distinct from Spain's midnight grape custom or Greece's New Year's cake tradition.