New Year's Day traditions to ensure health and prosperity may include the consumption of pork, knackwurst, bratwurst, kielbasa, sauerkraut, applesauce or black eyed peas. If you burn or smolder the Yule log, a huge block of oak, traditional beliefs found that lightning would never hit a house. Another suggestion is to wear some leaves. Roman generals wore laurel wreaths and sealskin coats during episodes of thunder. The ancient historian Plutarch believed that a sleeping body was lifeless, and lightning would pass through it without injury. French peasants would carry "pierres de tonnerre" or thunderstones to ward off lightning. You may want to ring a bell. Church bells in medieval Europe have the inscription: "Fulgura Frango" meaning "I break up lightning strokes." Regardless of the traditions, 2021 will positively be a great year!