When I was s little girl I loved , what was to me exotic fruit, that we only had at Christmas.
To me the most exciting and tasty was the date. Now there was not the choice we have today we always had the common date from the date palm the Delget Nour which looked like these.
Now these dates have a long narrow stone with an O in the middle of it. Probably this O is to do with the stem or the stork and how the fruit grows on the palm. That is the logical and scientific answer but my father told me a story when I was little and I prefer to believe what he told me.
If you look closely at the dates stones in the the photo you will see that those which are placed the right way up you can see the O .
Well back to the story that Dad told me. “When Mary and Joseph had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem Mary had a craving for something sweet. She told Joseph and he was dismayed to have to tell here there was nothing he could give her. They moved on a little way and came to some date trees. Joseph picked some dates for Mary and she delightedly said Oh! because they were moist and sweet! Just what she wanted! ” So my Dad told me that was the reason there is always an O on the stone of the date.
Well I love my Dad’s story and I told it to all my children and if I ever get the chance I shall tell my grandson too!
This is part LindaGHill‘s Stream of Consciousness Saturday.This week Linda’s prompt was :Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “date.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!