Rice and Blessings

Because most Asians depend on rice to survive, they revere it in other ways too. Priests and lamas ritually throw kernels on temple congregants to bestow the blessing not just of life itself but its finest accoutrements: strong health, fertility and prosperity. That’s the origin of our popular ceremony of tossing rice at newlyweds as they leave the sanctuary. We are symbolically showering a start-up couple with life’s great blessings: health, children and wealth.