Bayberry candles for New Year's Eve: "Bayberry candles are traditionally given as gifts to be burned on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve for good health and fortune in the coming year. Palm wax candles are available in 4 styles: pyramid, oval, octagon, and peaked pillar. Palm wax offers a fine crystalline structure to the deep colors of these finished candles." $10 - $18 at Colonial Candlecrafters.
I like bayberry, these look very nice.
I don’t think I’d ever heard of bayberry as a tradition on New Year’s, but apparently it’s a thing! I like the smell too.
I”m a redneck of British descent; the only good luck inducing New Years traditions we have are Hoppin’ John and collard greens (Southern) and First Foot (English/Scottish).
I have a vague recollection of bayberry being from New England, but that’s about it and I’m not even sure if that’s correct.
I have had Hoppin’ John a few times, but I really don’t have any New Year’s traditions & probably need to get some 🙂
DEFINITELY gotta have Hoppin’ John and collards on New Year’s! 🙂
Where I live (Texas Gulf Coast) it is traditional to have black-eyed peas (but not necessarily Hoppin’ John) on New Year’s Day, as well as greens of some sort and pork. We have cabbage, which seems to be a popular choice. No collards for me–I have tried them once or twice, and couldn’t choke down more than a couple of bites.
I would love to try real bayberry candles sometime, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them for sale. Perhaps the next time I am in New England I will have to keep an eye out for some.
I like collard greens if they’re cooked the old southern way, in pork fat I guess, or bacon? Anyway, I have liked them in southern diners.
These fit my budget better than those cute Fragonard tins from yesterday. ????
Love bayberry anyway, but I’m stocked up s with traditional bayberry tapers.
And do you burn them on Christmas Eve & New Year’s Eve for good luck? I am so surprised I’ve never heard of this (although would not be surprised if I’d heard of it and just forgotten).
Christmas Eve, but I’ve never heard of using them for NYE.
That brings back memories. We had bayberry candles when I was a kid, but I haven’t seen that much of them. I love the scent, but I’m stocked up in candles for now. Had no idea they were for luck….
Maybe the luck thing was “added” later?
Growing up in Maine, we always burned bayberry candles Christmas through the New Year. I had no idea that luck was involved. It was just something we did.
The bayberry candles we burned, though, weren’t artificially scented but were made from the wax of actual bayberries. One year we made them ourselves. It took forever. Bayberries are tiny and they don’t yield much wax. Still, my mom thought it was something I should know how to do. Now having made them once I can appreciate the reason the real bayberry candles are so expensive.
Actual bayberry candles don’t throw as much scent as the synthetic ones and the wax tends to be drier, more fragile, and a more cloudy, gray green color. The synthetic ones are more immediately interesting in all ways, but the real ones are one of the true scents of the winter holidays for me.
Interesting, thanks for all the info!