Old habits die hard

[Jamie (K)]

In the old days, before milk was pasteurized, people had to boil it before they drank it. In the United States, all milk in the stores is pasteurized, so there's no need to boil it. However, friends I have from some countries still boil milk in what to me looks like a slightly complicated process before they drink it. It's a habit that has outlived its purpose, and now it's a "tradition", and my friends aren't sure why they do it.

Similarly, people of some countries and religions won't eat certain foods that were unhealthy 2,000 years ago, but are not unhealthy now. Or they won't eat certain foods on certain days. When I was a child, people of my religion did not eat meat on Fridays. This was supposed to be a hardship, but society had changed, and there was so much good food other than meat, that people could eat like pigs on Friday, and really enjoy it, without ever touching meat. Finally, this rule was changed, and people eat meat on almost any day. Most Americans will not eat carp, because they believe it's a dirty fish, but in some countries they even eat carp for Christmas dinner, and it's not a problem, because the carp are raised under clean conditions and are perfectly healthy.

I was taught to wash the windows of our house by my father, who had learned it from my grandfather, who had learned it from his father. It required two buckets, some amonia, three rags and a chamois. The process was very time consuming. One time when I was younger, a girlfriend was helping me, and she said, "Why don't you just use a spray cleaner?" I couldn't believe I'd never thought of that. It was faster, worked better, and required only one rag, no buckets, and only one trip up the ladder. I realized I was washing windows the same way my family did in 1850! (And strangely enough, one of my friends who helped me a couple of years before the change now washes the windows of his own house the way my father taught me.) The even funnier part is that all my life I have washed the windows with a spray cleaner on the inside, but not on the outside.

Do you know of any tradition that used to have a practical reason but now does not?

[Conchita]

There are quite a few old-fashioned habits my mother still hangs on to, like:

- On the first Friday in March, woollens are taken out and aired, to keep them from getting moth-eaten. This is done in addition to using anti-moth products.

- Airing bedclothes outside on windowsills or balconies.

- Saying ‘Ave Mar?a Pur?sima’ (Hail purest Mary) when entering the house or passing by a church. In both cases, someone is supposed to answer ‘Sin pecado concebida’ (‘Conceived without sin’).

- Crossing oneself before meals, as well as saying blessings before and after.

- Mending and darning.

[Jamie (K)]

[Conchita]

[Jamie (K)]

Okay, but I was talking not just about habits that are old-fashioned, but habits whose reasons no longer exist at all. There's no practical reason for my Arabic friends to boil milk anymore. Pork is now healthier than lamb, and there's almost no chance of getting a disease from it, so the reason for people's health restrictions against eating that no longer exist. Carp is farm raised under healthy conditions, so it's healthy and there's no reason Americans could not eat it. This is the kind of situation I'm talking about.