JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A First Coast News viewer named Karen (yes, that's really her name) shared a valid concern with the news team through an email submission.
She wrote, "I hate to be the one who tries to stop people from doing an age old tradition, but in times of a pandemic does it make sense to blow out birthday candles? Last night I saw an ad that showed a birthday party focused on someone blowing out birthday candles, not smart now, or really anytime given how germs spread!"
Well, Karen, many members of the First Coast News team couldn't agree with you more.
In fact, our executive producer said "I’m not going to be eating birthday cake after someone blows out the candles – for a long time – if ever in the future. (It was kind of a gross tradition pre-COVID – especially those germ-covered kids!)"
That got us thinking, what other traditions should we think about parting ways with once we emerge from our safer-at-home bubbles and begin to gather in public places once again?
So, in addition to blowing out birthday candles, here's our list of the top five traditions we're wishing a fond farewell:
5. Bowls of community snacks at bars/restaurants/businesses
This one is a given. Those bowls of unwrapped candies at office reception desks, mixed nuts on a bar or breath mints at the hostess stand of restaurants are basically begging for people to stick their germ-covered fingers deep inside, swirl them around, and then exit, taking a few pieces and leaving behind an entire new microfloral ecosystem in the bowl.
According to Kenyon College, unwashed hands "contain the natural microflora or resident bacteria and microbes and the transient bacteria from the objects that the hands come in contact with. When the hands are unwashed, there are millions and millions of bacteria living and growing on (them)."
So while you may be tempted to fish around in that trail mix on the bar next time you're out to find your favorite chocolate candies and leave all the raisins behind, we'll take a hard pass (at least until we forget about what it was like to live in quarantine).
4. Shared communion cups (and kissing clergy on the hand, for that matter)
When local safer-at-home orders took effect, many local churches took their services to the virtual realm. The Diocese of St. Augustine closed Mass to the public.
Soon, Roman Catholic churches on the First Coast will reopen their celebrations of Mass, but with social distancing guidelines in place including the discontinuation of a shared cup for communion.
Frankly, we hope that discontinuation sticks.
Along with the gross factor of drinking out of the same cup as dozens of other parishioners, the practice of kissing clergy on the rings on their hands seems archaic in the time of the coronavirus.
In fact, even Pope Francis apparently got sick of people grabbing his hand on New Year's Eve, when a video of him slapping a woman's hand at the Vatican went viral.
"I apologize for the bad example ... sometimes even I lose patience," the pontiff said.
To be fair, the woman in the video abruptly grabbed his hand, yanked him toward her and would not let go. And it happened the same day that "A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China on 31 December 2019," according to the World Health Organization.
Experts said his response reflected an uneasiness with an element of traditional protocol that has lost its original meaning.
3. Buffets and potlucks where everyone shares serving dishes
As Gordon Ramsay recently said in an AT&T commercial, "Hey, fingers! *smack* It's not a buffet. Use a cocktail stick!"
While we hope no one uses their fingers to serve themselves food at a buffet, the suspicion is always lurking in the back of our minds.
And a potluck dinner, where everyone shares serving dishes, utensils, etc., offers a great opportunity for cross-contamination.
Although that may not pertain to the novel coronavirus specifically (the FDA says "there is no current evidence to support the transmission of COVID-19 associated with food or food packaging"), this whole experience has heightened our awareness about the transmission of illness/germs/bacteria/viruses in a more general sense.
Better to avoid contact with food others have touched when possible and reduce the risk of food-borne illness.
2. Handshakes
Why was grabbing each other’s hands a traditional greeting anyway? According to History.com, its origin is somewhat murky in nature, but one idea is that "the gesture began as a way of conveying peaceful intentions. By extending their empty right hands, strangers could show that they were not holding weapons and bore no ill will toward one another."
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but in this day and age, most people don't arm themselves upon meeting strangers. So while it's customary to extend one's hand, we could do without the cringe that comes along with a dead fish handshake after spending so long perfecting our firm grip to impress a prospective new boss, future in-laws or anyone with whom you hope to make a good first impression.
1. Eye contact/smiling at strangers in public
Scenario: You're wearing your mask, begrudgingly taking a trip to your neighborhood grocery store because you forgot to add milk to your weekly grocery delivery order. You try to make sure you're staying six feet away from other shoppers as you go down the aisles, dutifully following the green and red arrows on the floor indicating which direction to shop. Suddenly, someone turns a corner coming toward you in the opposite direction -- clearly they didn't see the one-way aisle sign -- and out of habit, you look at them and smile.
Then it hits you. They can't see your smile. Not only that, they're avoiding your gaze, hoping you aren't silently judging them for ignoring the floor signs (you are). What a waste of facial muscles.
As the practice of wearing masks in public becomes more commonplace, we expect many people to realize that smiles aimed strangers' way won't be seen, and get into the habit of averting their gaze instead.
And we have to say, this is one tradition we're going to miss.
