Lemon Pig, Lemon Pig, Lemon Pig! 🍋 🐖🪙🥂 pic.twitter.com/kua0CzUnD7
— 🧷Wren 🔜 FurSquared🌻🪵🍄 (@Wren_the_ferret) December 27, 2023
I don't know how I missed it, but a roundup of New Year traditions at Atlas Obscura led me to a post about lemon pigs, which I'd never heard of. A lemon already looks like a cartoon pig's body, and is easily converted with the help of a few cuts and four toothpicks. The eyes can be anything from whole cloves to pushpins to googly eyes.
Happy New Year (via granniepantries) pic.twitter.com/Am7zrKecEk
— 70s Dinner Party (@70s_party) December 31, 2017
The internet went big for lemon pigs as a New Year tradition after a Tweet in 2017 referenced a 1971 book on holiday entertaining. People from all over made their own and posted them as replies, although since it was already December 31st, some of them used oranges, apples, limes, bananas, or peppers. But the idea never went away, and today people are making sure they have a lemon in the house to make a pig for the New Year. You can see more lemon pigs at Instagram.
Our first lemon piglet. The cats absolutely hate it but we love him sm pic.twitter.com/Gx0m7JW8O0
— ami 🫐🐈⬛ (@nebulami) December 27, 2023
The lemon pig isn't really an old New Year tradition. It is, rather, a children's activity that goes back at least to 1882. Its inclusion in the 1971 book 401 Party and Holiday Ideas from Alcoa was a stretch anyway, but who cares? People found it fun, and now they make lemon pigs to ring in the New Year. And you can, too! Read more about lemon pigs and how they came about at Atlas Obscura.