Put Lentils on the Table to Wish for Prosperity / 🇵🇪 Peru

Before the year changes, put something on the table that means having enough. In Peru, New Year wishes for prosperity can take the form of lentils on the table or in a pocket. A few lentils are easy to set aside while you think about the coming year. You might wish for more meals with family or the chance to save towards something you need. Pick one hope you can describe without making a list. Then choose how you want to remember it, either by keeping a small dish in view during dinner or by putting a cloth pouch in a pocket. If you are with other people, give them time to think of a wish of their own.

1. Set a spoonful of dry lentils in a small dish. If you want to carry them, use a small pouch that will keep the grains together.
2. Before midnight, decide what plenty would mean to you in the coming year. Put it into a few words you will remember.
3. As the year changes, look at the dish or touch the pouch and repeat the wish quietly. If you want to share a spoonful at the table, use cooked lentils for that part.
4. Later, put the dry lentils away. Think of one action you can take in January that would move you toward the wish.

Lentils are one of several New Year customs described in Peru. Families have different ways of using them. Some set them on the table, others carry a little in a pocket, and a spoonful of cooked lentils at midnight is another recorded version. These practices sit alongside customs with roots in several places. What they share is the idea of giving abundance a form you can hold or see. A lentil is small, and it takes many to fill a bowl. That makes the dish an easy way to talk about the sort of prosperity that grows a little at a time. At the table, the wish can be as personal as the words you choose for it.