• One of the oldest wedding traditions, the custom of throwing rice, originated with the ancient Hindus and Chinese. In these cultures, rice is the symbol of fruitfulness and prosperity. Tossing it after the ceremony was believed to bestow fertility upon the bride and groom. Eating rice and other grains was thought to guarantee health, wealth and happiness for the newlyweds. Today, rice tossing is being replaced by the more ecologically friendly birdseed tossing, because uncooked rice is damaging to birds that eat it off the ground.
• In China a typical greeting, instead of “How are you?” is “Have you had your rice today?” A greeting to which one is expected to always reply, “Yes”.
• Rice is the first food a new Indian bride offers her husband, perhaps instead of wedding cake; it is also the first food offered to a newborn.
• Honda means “main rice field.” Toyota means “bountiful rice field.”
• Arkansas is the largest rice producing state in the U.S.
• Louis Armstrong signed his autograph “Red Beans and Ricely Yours…”
• In India, it is said the grains of rice should be like two brothers: close but not stuck together.
• In Thailand when you call your family to a meal you say, “Eat Rice.”
• The Japanese word for ‘cooked rice’ is the same as the word for ‘meal’.

People in Asia use nearly every bit of the rice plant for something:

STRAW:

• stacked and preserved for cattle fodder
• braided into rope
• crafted into apparel, shoes and toys
• molded into bricks
• made into paper
• used to make a “rice dragon” on which silk worms build their cocoons

GRAIN:

• processed into crackers and cereals
• brewed into beer
• fermented into wine
• processed into animal feed
• ground into cosmetic powders

BRAN:

• rendered into oil to make soap and cosmetics
• added to “health foods” to increase fibre content

HULLS:

• used as packing material to pad fragile cargo during shipping