Superstitious?

Each year since sometime in the 1990s I've eaten blackeyed peas on New Year's Day. In the South, they claim eating these on New Year's Day will bring good luck for the year. I think you're supposed to eat them with collard greens too.
When I started this tradition I remember the year had been a bad one, and I was open to any suggestion to make the new one better. I don't remember if it worked, but I've kept up the tradition.
I pair them with hash browns. Not sure why, it just seemed like a good thing at the time.
At the grocery store today I picked up my can of blackeyed peas and paid that outrageous amount of more than $1 for them.
Tonight we'll probably eat something easy, like spaghetti or chili and chips, and watch something on the Internet about the festivities around the world. Tomorrow I'm going to make snacky foods and we'll sit around and eat all day and play games. The meal will consist of hash browns, blackeyed peas and greens, probably some corn and green beans for Sean, and maybe some chicken. (He doesn't like blackeyed peas.)
The photo above was taken from the Allen's Web site. I can't get the Southern Style where we live. I get the regular plain blackeyed peas.
I really like them, but I just wonder why they're so expensive. Are blackeyed peas difficult to grow? Are they difficult to harvest? Maybe they're only expensive here.