Walnuts and our Imagination

We were introduced to our first walnut via the Hans  Christian Anderson's fairy tale about Thumberlina who slept in a walnut shell cradle.

Of course we did not get to eat a walnut many years later. Some of my friends had never eaten a walnut in their life!!

For a few years in Sibu some of us luckier ones enjoyed eating walnuts during Chinese New Year and also Christmas.

There are some reasons for Christians and others to have nuts for christmas. In England, I was told, the idea of nuts bring good luck.

the Germans have the tradition of giving a woode nutcracker in the form of  a soldier or some other friece authority figure as a way of keeping loved ones safe from harm. A kind of protection idea. And this goes down very well with Malaysians. so the nutcracker repreents the power and strength to guard the family from evil spirits. 

It is good to pass around the nut bowl. 

The Chinese particularly like walnuts because the shape of walnuts looks like the human brain. Chinese have believed in the eating of walnuts for a long time. Walnuts have higher anti oxidants than any other nuts. Since it resembles the brain, it is good for nourishing the brain. Walnuts are also associated with longevity, as walnut trees live for hundreds of years.

Interestingly, it is well known that Chinese emperors and officials rotated pairs of them in their hands to promote circulation. Walnuts became a gift traded among the Chinese elite, part status symbol and part health remedy.

It is good to give Walnut powder as gifts for Chinese New Year.

Although we have all aged, grown older and with lots of wrinkles (like the walnut shells) we still think of the magic of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales.