Sacred actions

10 daily habits once considered magical

Many daily habits we take for granted can be traced back to ancient rituals, religious practices, or traditional customs. From washing your hands to enjoying a morning cup of coffee, these everyday acts carry echoes of centuries-old beliefs, offering a fascinating glimpse into how history shapes modern life.

There was a time when washing one's hands wasn’t just about hygiene. Long before germs were understood, people performed this act for entirely different reasons.

Handwashing originated as a ritual of purification in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, where priests and worshippers cleansed themselves before ceremonies to remove spiritual impurities. Today, many faiths, including Judaism and Islam, uphold these traditions, incorporating specific handwashing practices into their sacred rites.

Similarly, many of our ancestors didn't view bathing as a daily hygienic necessity, save for ceremonial purposes. In Hindu, Jewish, and Roman traditions, water immersion was tied to spiritual purification rather than hygiene alone.

Modern continuations of these practices include ritual baths such as the Jewish mikveh and the Hindu ghats along the Ganges, where devotees bathe to cleanse both body and spirit. European spa culture also traces its lineage back to the grand public bath traditions of Ancient Rome, which were as much about social and spiritual status as they were about getting clean.

Surprisingly, eating utensils weren’t always seen as daily necessities. Both chopsticks in East Asia and forks in Europe originally served ritualistic or symbolic purposes.

Chopsticks were often used in ancestor offerings and ceremonial meals before becoming household staples. Similarly, early European forks were designed to avoid direct contact with food; however, this reflected more of a concern with social etiquette and status rather than a true preoccupation with hygiene.

Coffee’s origins trace back to the 15th century, when Sufi monks in Yemen brewed it to remain alert during nighttime prayers. They viewed the beverage as a tool to enhance focus and spiritual discipline during long hours of devotion.

From its origins in the monastery, coffee spread across the Islamic world and eventually into Europe by the 17th century. Over time, it evolved from a sacred stimulant into a global morning ritual, forever linking the act of "waking up" to a practice rooted in centuries of religious discipline.

Bells have long served as powerful tools in Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian traditions—signaling prayer times, marking sacred rituals, and warding off malevolent spirits. Many cultures also hold that the resonant sound of a bell purifies the surrounding space and invites positive energy.

From church towers to school hallways, bells continue this legacy today. Even the modern dinner bell or digital alert links our daily schedules to this ancient practice of "marking" time and calling a community to attention during significant moments.

In ancient Egypt and Rome, rings were far more than simple decoration. Egyptians wore rings adorned with sacred symbols—such as the scarab or the Shen ring—as protective talismans to ward off misfortune. Meanwhile, Romans used signet rings to denote social rank and authenticate documents, often selecting specific gemstones for their purported mystical properties.

While many modern rings are purely aesthetic, wedding bands and heirlooms still carry deep symbolic weight, echoing their ancient roles as markers of status, protection, and lifelong commitment.

In ancient Greece, during the Mounychia festival (around the full moon), Athenians offered round cakes called amphiphontes to Artemis, goddess of the moon. Historical accounts suggest that these cakes were decorated with small torches or candles arranged in a circle, intended to mimic the moon’s ethereal glow.

Scholars suggest this ritual may have inspired later traditions. Today, birthday candles carry on this practice in a celebratory form, though they still symbolize the ancient themes of light, hope, and protection.

The gesture of crossing one’s fingers has roots in early Christianity: believers are thought to have crossed their index fingers with those of another person to form a secret "X" (like a tiny cross) as a sign of faith and to invoke divine protection during times of persecution.

Over time, the gesture evolved from a two-person pact into a solitary act. By the Middle Ages, individuals began crossing their own fingers to ward off evil or "trap" good luck, eventually becoming the universal symbol for hope and fortune we recognize today**.**

Waving likely evolved from the precursors of the modern salute. In the medieval period, knights would lift the visors of their helmets to reveal their faces and bare their right hands—a practical way to prove they were not carrying a weapon or harboring hostile intent.

Over time, this open‑hand gesture transitioned into a universal greeting. Today, when we wave, the raised palm still subconsciously signals peaceful intentions, echoing its origins as a gesture of peace.

Raising a glass has deep roots in ancient Greece and Rome. At Greek drinking parties, participants raised their cups in libations to the gods—a practice documented in the works of Homer, where toasts were offered to deities like Zeus and Hygieia.

In Rome, the custom took a literal turn: guests often dropped a piece of toasted bread into their wine to temper its acidity and improve the flavor. This birthed the term "toast," from the Latin tostus, meaning "parched" or "burnt." While legends suggest that clinking glasses forcefully was a way to spill wine between cups to prove neither was poisoned, the act remains a universal symbol of trust and celebration.

WORDS FROM THE WILD

8 Odd And Fascinating Terms For Animal Gatherings

Image: Matthew Cabret

Perhaps you noticed that the English language allows itself a poetic license when it comes to collective nouns of animals. You have probably heard of a "murder" of crows, or a "parliament" of owls, but there are hundreds of mind-bogglingly similar cases.

Most stem from Late Middle Ages hunting traditions. Initially developing as specialist vocabulary, they soon became fashionable to use in court circles, eventually reaching unsuspected heights of weirdness that can hardly be interpreted as anything else than satire. So, take most of these with a grain of salt!

Image: Pete Nuij

Raccoons are inherently amusing animals, and envisioning them engaging in deliberations about local taxes only adds an extra layer of whimsy to their already comical nature. Formerly thought to be solitary animals, we know that males often gather in small groups to better fend off potential invaders and ally against foreign males during mating season (females share a common area but not the same living quarters). So, their quirky collective noun is kind of appropriate.

Image: Steve Tsang

Ferrets are an industrious bunch. Anyone who has ever watched a group of ferrets running about their business (sic) wouldn’t wonder at all where this noun comes from. These charming mammals were domesticated long ago and selectively bred to hunt rabbits, so they are used to teamwork and following orders.

Another tidbit of ferret trivia: a male ferret is called a hob, and a female a jill.

Image: Kyaw Tun

This one is a bit misleading, at least if you are expecting alligators to be pious and merciful. There is an ounce of truth in the term, however, since alligators effectively tend to "congregate" wherever there is abundant food or during specific seasons.

In any case, it seems not everyone agreed this was an appropriate term for such fearsome creatures, and this is probably why a popular alternative to describe a group of alligators is menace.

Image: Cristina Glebova

Ravens are some of the smartest creatures on the planet, so it feels quite prejudiced to think of them as necessarily unkind. According to some sources, the term might stem from the age-old impression that these birds often mistreated their young, casting them into the world before they were ready to fend for themselves.

While this belief lacks basis in reality, crows (the more compact-sized cousins of ravens) are also treated with the same suspicion, as their peculiar collective noun - a murder of crows - is even more worrying.

Image: Dr. Kristin Laidre, Polar Science Center

Forget the somber connotations of the previous one, and let’s step into a realm of pure wholesomeness. Narwhals are an extraordinarily rare sight–for humans, at least. So, bumping into a whole group of them is surely a blessing. Unlike other types of whales, these true unicorns of the sea are famously elusive, and even marine biologists struggle to catch a glimpse of them.

Image: Sergi Ferrete

Besides being quite lyrical, a memory of elephants is a fitting term for a group of elephants in the wild. An elephant’s memory is key to its survival, and older members of a group retain complex information about their surroundings, including distinguishing between friendly and hostile humans. So think twice before making an elephant angry, because they are certainly capable of holding a grudge.

Image: Ahmed Galal

This one has political–or military–connotations, but for good reason! While most felines tend to live solitary lives, on occasion only accompanied by members of the opposite sex, male cheetahs actually form enduring alliances with other closely related males in order to protect a shared territory. These bonds are so strong, that the coalitions may last for their entire lifetimes.

Image: ahmad kanbar

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since it is remarkably easy to picture moles as hardworking workers of the underground, mining deep below the Earth in search of gold or glory. In fact, many ancient poets thought so, and even Virgil praised their diligence and industriousness.

Ask a farmer, though, and they might have a rather different opinion.