
With 2025 on the horizon, we are looking toward the new year ahead, and toward the delicious treats to ring in the new year. Marzipan pigs are commonly given as gifts for good luck in Germany for New Years, called Marzipanschwein or Glücksschwein. So why pigs? In German, the phrase “Schwein gehabt” (literally “having a pig”) means being lucky, having connotations of prosperity and largesse by owning a pig in more pastoral times. This also manifets itself in the popularity of pig figurines and piggy banks! These marzipan pigs remind me a bit of the frutta martorana made for All Saint’s Day in Sicily, or the Easter marzipan lambs. If you are really ambitious, you can even make your own marzipan pigs. Happy new year!


