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Bon Appetit! Strange Prohibitions While Eating in the Malay Culture
There are many strange and unusual prohibitions in the Malay culture. When it comes to eating, there seems to be a whole list of things that you are not allowed to do. But these are just myths created by the older generations to make sure that their children behave well during mealtimes. Some of them are incomprehensible and simply illogical.
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Do Not Eat While Walking
It is advisable not to eat while walking, apparently so as not to acquire stomach diseases. I think the older generations are particular about etiquette when eating. In my culture, it is considered rude to eat while walking.
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Wash the Dishes After Eating
If you do not wash the dishes, your children will get married late. I don’t see the logic in this actually. I know for definite that it is important to ensure cleanliness in the home. Leaving dirty dishes lying around may attract unwanted flies, ants and cockroaches into the home. So, I think that is the main reason why they invented such myth.
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Want to have Twins?
This one is a real classic! Have you noticed that in a bunch of bananas, there are two bananas stuck together? In the Malay culture, it’s called “pisang (meaning banana) kembar (meaning twin)” or “twin bananas” literally. If you would like to have twins, eat the twin bananas, according to the older generations. I have ever eaten the twin bananas before, but I did not bear twins.
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Do Not Switch Places While Eating
If you like to switch places or seats while eating, you will have more than 1 spouse. I guess this is another myth created to enforce eating etiquette rather than marriage counselling. It is considered to be rude to move around when you eat, thus the rule.
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Do Not Eat from a Chipped Plate
I believe that this is more of a safety issue. People are advised not to eat from a chipped plate, or they will bear a child with cleft lip. Again, there seems to be no real link between the two!
Even though, some of these are pertaining to basic eating etiquette and safety concerns, the older generations probably believe that it will be better received if they told their children such myths to make them behave in a certain way while eating their food. But in this day and age of science and technology, these myths become obsolete and useless, as children nowadays will question the logic to them. Bon Appetit!
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Interesting superstitions that people of all cultures have. My grandmother had oodles of them.