The Fascinating History of Chopsticks

Historians believe that chopsticks first cropped up in China over 5000 years ago. Back then men used to cook their food on little self made fires, and started to use sticks to get their food from the fire to avoid burning themselves. As man became wiser and their knowledge about needing to preserve the fuel that they had grew, food was chopped into smaller pieces so that it cooked faster, and less firewood was needed. That was when they started to eat the smaller pieces of food with little sticks. Those little sticks were the very beginning of chopsticks as we know them today.

Later on as time progressed and Confucianism came into light - this made chopsticks even more popular, not just in East Asia - but around the world. Confucius was quoted as saying that men that stayed away from the kitchen and the slaughter house, using no knifes on their tables were honorable. By 500AD it was documented that chopsticks were in Japan, Vietnam, Korea - and some claim to them lay in the Middle East - where rich noblemen had taken them as gifts for Sheiks and Sultans.

Bamboo chopsticks seem to be the most popular type used, probably down to the cost factor, but they are also made out of wood, bone, and precious metals. There was a period in time where silver chopsticks were all the rage. It was believed that if someone poisoned your food and you were eating with silver chopsticks they would turn black and you would know if there was poison inside your dish. It's now known that the story is pure myth as silver wouldn't change if dipped in poison.

In China chopsticks are known as kui-zi - which when translated into English means quick little fellows. The average size of your everyday stick is around 9 to 10 inches long, and they are shaped in a rectangular shape with blunt endings. The ancient Japanese style ones are around 9 to 10 inches long and joined together at the end. By the 10th century Japanese chopsticks were separated instead of being adjoined at the ends.

Until today it's believed that eating using a pair of sticks helps to improve your memory, give you added dexterity to your fingers, and is extremely useful when it comes to learning and painting pictures. A lot of superstition in Asia is based around chopsticks- things such as finding pairs that are not even in size at your table means that you will miss your method of transportation. If you drop your sticks down it's also believed that you will come into bad luck. One thing that's set in stone - is that chopsticks will play an important role in history for generations to come.