THREAD

Here are some obscure food + death facts for you that will be great #Thanksgiving dinner convo starters —festive, fun, & guaranteed to make everything awkward! (which is probably why I don’t get invited anywhere)

#FolkloreThursday

You: *gestures to the rolls*
Hey, did you know that people used to put little rolls like this on top of corpses because they believed the bread absorbed the dead person’s sins? And then they would pay some guy called a Sin Eater to eat the sin filled bread? Btw sins r delicious

Turkeys came from Mexico. Mexica/Aztecs served turkey at funeral feasts and used it as burial offerings.

There was also a plague god named Chalchiuhtotolin, which translates to PRECIOUS NIGHT TURKEY

Pass the beans! Ancient Romans believed the souls of the dead resided in fava beans. At funerals, beans were eaten & at weddings they were presented to the bride & groom who would eat them in hopes of attracting the souls of male ancestors to carry on the family bloodline.

Albert Richardson invented the butter churn as well as the device that lowers caskets into the ground.

#blackinventors #TheMoreYouKnow

Deviled eggs in your spread? Eggs are a symbol of rebirth and resurrection and ‘have been found in or near cremation urns and inhumation burials, and eggs are sometimes depicted on Roman sarcophagi’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/03/26/the-curious-history-of-easter-eggs-from-birth-to-burial/#1c6183db16af

Parsley aka the HERB OF DEATH is probably in your stuffing/dressing, or used as a garnish. Ancient Greeks & Romans dedicated parsley to funeral rites. It was scattered over graves during funeral ceremonies or planted over them.

Additional parsley fun facts:

*In Germany and the US it was once believed that if parsley would not grow in your garden, someone in your household will die soon.

* If virgins planted parsley they would risk being impregnated by the Devil.

And finally, when it’s time for that pumpkin pie :

In the Balkans, it was believed that a pumpkin left outside during the night of a full moon would become a vampire