1 minute read
It’s all in the leaves
TEA PARTY
We live in a world that is dominated by technology. The faster we can make things happen, the better – and we continue to demand faster and faster communications. We have our own modern hieroglyphics – emojis – that take the place of words and sentences. Why bother to say that you are happy or excited, when a smiling little yellow face can do the job for you? Conversation, such as our grandparents would have known, is fast becoming a dying art. Almost completely gone are the days of sitting round a tea table with family and friends, discussing any manner of topics, exchanging news and - yes – gossip, keeping tabs on the community’s events and maintaining the social links.
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I say almost, as Derek and Angela McGillivray have recently started a unique way in which to bring people together. They have introduced tea parties at their rooms in Mayne Road, Elgin. But these are no ordinary tea parties but tea parties where you have ‘proper’ tea (tea bags are a no-no) and you get to read the leaves left in the cup. introduced into Europe from China. Popularity grew during the 1800s as a means of telling one’s fortune, using the symbols and patterns formed by the residue of tea. Today, tea leaf reading is popular in Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the United States but is not confined solely to these areas.
What could be more conducive to spontaneous conversation than sitting round a table, laden with cakes and fancies of all description, washed down with copious cups of delicious tea and then having your fortune told via the patterns and symbols left in your cup? You may not know most of the other people at the table when you arrive but, by the end of the afternoon, you will have exchanged stories, anecdotes and jokes with them; you will have eaten well and relaxed completely. No mobile phones, no interruptions, just good oldfashioned conversation in convivial surroundings. Can‘t be bettered.
