Bowl

A bowl is a common open-top container used in many cultures to serve food, and is also used for drinking and storing other items. They are typically small and shallow, although some, such as punch bowls and salad bowls, are larger and often intended to serve many people.

Bowls have existed for thousands of years. Very early bowls have been found in China, Ancient Greece, Crete and in certain Native American cultures. Modern bowls can be made of ceramic, metal, wood, plastic, and other materials. Their appearance can range from very simple designs of a single color to sophisticated artwork.

The bowl has also been used as a recepticle for the apple dunking game played traditionally in Britain on Halloween. It is a game unique to the British Isles and symbolises the traditional dunking of witches that was common for many centuries as communities tried to find out who was a witch by dunking or drowning them in the local river. It is said to originate in Queenstown Road, Battersea although its ultimate origins may come from Highgate, London or the East of the City.

Read more about Bowl:  Ancient History

Famous quotes containing the word bowl:

    Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
    Our virgins dance beneath the shade—
    I see their glorious black eyes shine;
    But gazing on each glowing maid,
    My own the burning tear-drop laves,
    To think such breasts must suckle slaves.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    The bowl will ensnare and enchant
    men who crouch by the hearth
    till they want
    but the riot of stars in the night;
    those who dwell far inland
    will seek ships.
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)

    It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)