handsel

noun

a gift given at the beginning of the year or to mark an acquisition or the start of an enterprise, supposedly to bring good luck.

1. give a hansel to.

   the practice of hanselling the master still flourished in Scotland

Middle English (denoting luck): apparently related to late Old English handselen ‘giving into a person's hands’, and Old Norse handsal ‘giving of the hand to seal a promise’, from hand + an element related to sell; the notion of ‘luck’, however, is not present in these words.