PASSING THE PORT

Evening Star, Issue 19723, 25 November 1927, Page 1

PASSING THE PORT

AN OLD CUSTOM EXPLAINED. What is the origin ol the ritual whereby a decanter of port goes round tho table, following the course of the sum ? Sir James I razor, author ol ‘Tho Golden Bough,’ has brought his great store of anthropological loro to the problem, and lias come to the conclusion that tho ritual comes from an old Celtic superstition that all circular motions should bo deiscal from deas, ‘‘right hand,” and ‘‘ini,’ direction). In other words, a person moving in a circle should always have his right hand to the centre. This is tho lucky turn, ami it shouid bc used in passing anything round, as in carrying a coffin round a grave before lowering it to earth, or in serving out drinks to a company. As Sir James Frazer says, if/you walk round the table with tho wine as it circulates you will see that you are going doiseul. “Passing the port,” lie fivers, has no connection with a sun-wiso motion, though, if wo conceive tho sun going round tho earth, it does go deiscal—that is, so that a person standing upon it and looking .straight before mm will always have his right hand to the centre. Sir James Frazer does not explain why tho Celts chose to regal'd the right hand as lucky and the left as unlucky, which is the more curious, as tho Greeks and Romans did nut share the superstition.