What has business and logic to do with Food Superstition?

Let’s look at some ceremonies and identify a common link:

1)   Lemon and chillies are hung outside the shops in India.

2)   Lion dances during Chinese New Year and throws fruit peels. I have witnessed people trying to catch like the “catch of the tournament” by Mackenzie Harvey. I also tried but was not even nearly as impressive :-D

3)   Birthday boy or girl being asked to blow the candles; almost anywhere on the planet where there is a cake!

4)   Pumpkins and the $8B Halloween industry in the US?

I feel its Superstition. And it’s surprising how some of us, who disdain at the thought of being superstitious and pride with the feeling of having a scientific mind, subconsciously do a lot of things which have their roots in superstitious beliefs. How about eating or rather not eating a certain type of food before some important event such as exams or meetings? Are we really sure about the scientific reasons behind that?

In my previous article Luck- Nature’s Most Sophisticated Algorithm (sorry for the shameless self promotion), I tried to understand the logic behind the nature’s luck protocol, and it was an attempt with my finite knowledge, and few years of existence to understand the unknown.

However, since the beginning of times human beings have been trying to find this elusive logic behind the natural phenomena to either devise a coping mechanism or leveraging it to create some sort of business. Therefore, some of the food superstitions we are talking here are build-up of many a times bizarre logic, over the course of thousands of years. And over the time it has become a part of our culture and daily rituals itself so much so that we don't really think about it anymore. In many ways it is helping up shape up the business logic and driving business.

For example:

In China and Singapore there is a concept of long life noodles (Yi Mein 伊面) and is consumed a lot during the Chinese New Year (CNY).

Cutting noodles is considered cutting life short! I consumed it as part of the CNY celebrations last year and even for a discerning vegetarian like me, the dish tasted awesome ??. Apart from the taste, the superstition is partially fuelling the growth of this industry and supporting the restaurants economy as well.

Crossing of bread to ward off the evil spirit from sitting there!

The logic that can be ascribed to this habit is that it helps the dough in rising in the oven. Over the time many of us tend to subconsciously corelate good bread with this cross mark. People from Ireland, Austria, UK etc. noted that their mothers usually make a cross on the bread for near about same superstitious reasons.

Irrespective of the logic many bakeries have adopted it, and if I am given a choice I might tend to subconsciously consider the one with cross mark as of better quality and pick it up.

Rice- a symbol of prosperity and important deliverable in the wedding industry.

Showering of rice during important ceremonies and not just wedding predates many religions as well! It's really that old.

In modern times, refined over thousands of years we now have intelligent applications of the same rituals which have become essential part of the ceremonies. For example- showering of rice during weddings, rice cakes, pushing of rice pot by the brides in India during the "Griha Pravesh" ceremony.

The wedding & honeymoon industry has become a multi-million dollar industry and perhaps is the single largest event which displays a wide array of superstitions and beliefs in action from cooking food to eating food and even applying food on the body ??. Who would have known that drinking honey based aphrodisiac- Mead, in the 5th Century ended up taking up a whole new meaning and becoming synonymous with love and happiness in the 21st century.

With business logic this ritual was turned into a thriving business, which is now getting impacted due to Covid! I noticed some companies trying to extend our firm and often legitimate belief in herbs to make far reaching claims that they can ward off covid virus with their products, which is seen as yet another form of evil in some parts of the world, much like the Plague of the Middle Ages!

Let's observe our daily actions and understand if any of our actions are subconsciously being guided by some superstition predominant in our culture. It may not be required to make any changes but it’s always good to be conscious about our choices and know why we do what we do. Isn’t?