Why Give Garlic Cloves at a Pidyon HaBen?

Was there suger cubes also? The garlic is for the chulent and the suger is for your coffee Shabbos morning…

There is a kabalah (Rabi Tzadok Hacohen) that eating from a seudat pidyon haben is equivalent to fasting 84 days, which is a segulah for atonement (kaparat avonot, Rav Chaim Vital). The remez is פדיום = פ”ד יום. In order to partake in the seudah and reap the benefits, it is enough to eat even a slight amount of food, provided the food has a noticeable taste. Since garlic and sugar have distinct tastes, there is a minhag to hand out garlic and sugar at a pidyon. That way a large number of people can benefit at a very small cost.

So I heard that like others have said that it is a segulah to eat from a pidyon haben. The reason specifically garlic and sugar cubes is because back in the Heim a pidyon haben was rare and everyone wanted a piece of it. So someone would go and eat there and bring home leftovers for others. But after a long journey back home to the shtetel, the food would spoil. So they gave out sugar and garlic which doesn’t spoil very quickly.

These various minhagim probably have roots in kabbalah etc. some of which have more intuitive logic then others but all are obviously practices that provide positive energy to the participants in a Simcha. Whatever gives people a sense of optimism that their actions will result in a segulah and intercession from shamayim they should go with.