stirring clockwise?

[Geoff Withnell]

Clockwise was know as deasil (your spelling may vary, lol)

tripleblessed beat me to the word 'Widdershins', which does have some superstitions associated with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widdershins ... but as Steve said above, a lot of 'history' that gets repeated about ancient peoples and cultures is often conflated with myth.

[sydnie7]

Mix in some long-standing prejudices against all things left-handed (for example, the Roman word for all things left has sinister implications). But as others have said and will, I'm sure, continue to say -- lots of guesswork and projection involved the farther back you try to go.

[Tobus]

Assuming there's any truth to this myth, I wonder if it is a case of these people building a tradition based on natural observations of the Coriolis Effect without really understanding the underlying principles involved. It seems to be common amongst primitive peoples that they build superstitions around natural laws that we understand today through science.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

It has to do with whether one is left handed or right handed. It is easier to stir clockwise if you are right handed, anti-clockwise if you are left handed. It is a function of how the wrist moves.

[CDNSushi]

I was told a story some years ago, about a young man who apprenticed in a Japanese restaurant, where his main job was preparing the rice. He was instructed in a very specific manner of washing (rinsing) the rice before it got put into the rice cooker. He was to put the appropriate measure of rice into a vessel, which would then be filled with cold water. Then, he was to stir it counter-clockwise, and ONLY counter-clockwise, three times. Rice, it was explained to him, grows in a clockwise direction, and it had to be stirred counter-clockwise so that it would realize the life that it could have had, if it hadn't been harvested. Then, as he was stirring the rice, he was instructed to say a prayer of thanks to rice, for its sacrifice, and for providing nourishment and sustenance.

So perhaps pre-Christian Celts also held some sort of comparable, animistic or shamanistic beliefs that would parallel something like this. Traditional Japanese Shintoism believes that spirits (kami) inhabit everything -- from rice, to trees, to mountains, to streams. So a fairly elaborate system of doing things has been established in response to those beliefs.

[Blupiper]

Sinister? How gauche! Written as a life-long leftie. Perhaps the clockwise/anticlockwise stirring comes from the largest proportion of the population using their right hand? Only a surmise and my two cents worth.

JMB

[sevenoaks]

Mmmm. I wonder why the windmills in the rest of the world turn clockwise but the windmills in Ireland turn anticlockwise. I understand they are Celts?