Chopsticks Day

Chopsticks. Tookapic / Pixabay.com / 2015 / CC0 1.0

The 6th of February is Chopsticks Day.

It’s a day to eat food with chopsticks!

If you already know how to use chopsticks, it’s an excuse for some good food. If you don’t know how, or aren’t very good at it, today’s good day to learn or practise.

One thing that can interesting to do is try to eat a non-Asian food with them. You’ll quickly realize how Asian foods are prepared in the kitchen with chopsticks at the table specially in mind (see entry on chopsticks for explanation).

In the world now about 25% of the people on earth use chopsticks to eat everyday. If your chopsticks have blunt ends, they are likely to be Chinese inspired. If yours are shorter with more pointed ends, Japanese.

If nothing else, today is a good excuse to go out for a good Chinese or Japanese meal (or other!) meal, so you’ll have a chance to use chopsticks.

If you have children around, try a game of picking up dried beans or candies with chopsticks. And then, later, at dinner, have they use chopsticks to eat their dinner with so they can start to become comfortable with them at a young age.

You may also wish to brush up on chopstick etiquette. Here is some Japanese etiquette: ^[1]5 Essential Chopstick Etiquette Tips to Know in Japan! Live Japan. Tokyo, Japan: Gurunavi. 29 January 2019. Accessed July 2019 at
https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-tokyo_train_station/article-a0001284/

• Don’t play with your chopsticks;
• Don’t pass food from one set of chopsticks to another;
• Don’t rub your chopsticks together;
• Don’t stand your your chopsticks up into rice;
• Don’t cross your chopsticks.

There are many other no-no’s, including:

• Don’t point chopsticks at people;
• Don’t suck or chew on chopsticks;

#ChopsticksDay #NationalChopsticksDay

History

Chopsticks were around for thousands of years before the fork was even invented. They originated in China but spread everywhere in Asia.

The origin of Chopsticks Day itself is unknown.

The day was being mentioned by at least 2013 ^[2]Neilson, Laura. Food Republic. 6 January 2013. Accessed July 2019 at https://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/02/06/10-modern-chopsticks-for-the-chinese-new-year/

Language notes

Chopsticks in Chinese: 筷子 kuai-zi (quick little fellows)
Chopsticks in Japanese: 箸 – hashi

“You do not sew with a fork, and I see no reason why you should eat with knitting needles.” — Miss Piggy

Sources

Celebrate all the food holidays this week with our handy guide. Anderson, South Carolina: Anderson Independent-Mail. 31 January 2018. Accessed July 2019 at https://www.independentmail.com/story/life/current/2018/01/31/celebrate-all-food-holidays-week-our-handy-guide/1079202001/

Giese, Sven. Tag der Essstäbchen. 5 February 2019. Blog post. Accessed July 2019 at https://www.kuriose-feiertage.de/tag-der-essstaebchen/