It’s officially New Year’s Day - and that means it’s also Haitian Independence Day. 

Residents in the Haitian community celebrated in Brooklyn with a traditional soup. 

People celebrated with joumou soup at Zamni Restaurant. It is a Haitian soup made out of pumpkin, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. 

The restaurant cooked up over 80 gallons and donated some to health care workers and nearby firefighters. 

The soup has a particularly important meaning to the Haitian community. 

"During slavery times we were not allowed to eat the pumpkin soup. That was reserved for the white colonial masters, so when we gained our independence we said, you know what? We are going to drink this soup every year to celebrate our freedom from the French,” said Mikaelle Cartright, from Zamni Restaurant.