Actually, wild birds can eat uncooked rice (sparrows and doves stuff themselves with it over here all the time and nothing bad happens to them). Bird stomachs are amazing - if they eat something that doesn’t agree with them, they can just throw it up at will. The problem is that some birds will eat birdseed and not rice, so rice is more likely to lay around on the ground and make a mess for someone to slip on once the birds who will eat it get their fill.
Another reason why churches discourage rice especially – and remember the stuff they throw isn’t what’s on the stalk, it’s processed – is because it usually lies around after the wedding presenting a falling risk.
If that sounds ludicrous, sorry - people *do* slip on the stuff. and then churches get sued. Actually, a lot of churches are discouraging birdseed, too.
yep - no birdseed allowed at my wedding, so the maid of honor suggested we give out those bottles of bubbles so people could blow bubbles for us. The church said no go to that one too - even when my new husband and I offered to leave the church and walk through the grass to the car we were told that there was nothing that our guests would be allowed to throw in celebration.
It’s a shame that we’re forced to do away with such traditions.
My personal bias against birdseed stems from when I got married. Someone plastered me in the head with the birdseed as we ran by. Some of it went into my ear canal, and although it didn’t cause any damage, I plucked one seed out of my ear a month after the wedding!
ejcapulet over 14 years ago
Actually, wild birds can eat uncooked rice (sparrows and doves stuff themselves with it over here all the time and nothing bad happens to them). Bird stomachs are amazing - if they eat something that doesn’t agree with them, they can just throw it up at will. The problem is that some birds will eat birdseed and not rice, so rice is more likely to lay around on the ground and make a mess for someone to slip on once the birds who will eat it get their fill.
lewisbower over 14 years ago
Zero Population Growth WARNING
Six Billion people we can’t feed and we throw rice WHY?
Pollution, oil spills, starvation, and we aren’t intelligent enough to stop?
Don’t breed em if you can’t feed em, for the next eighty years.
cdward over 14 years ago
Another reason why churches discourage rice especially – and remember the stuff they throw isn’t what’s on the stalk, it’s processed – is because it usually lies around after the wedding presenting a falling risk.
If that sounds ludicrous, sorry - people *do* slip on the stuff. and then churches get sued. Actually, a lot of churches are discouraging birdseed, too.
ladyryln over 14 years ago
yep - no birdseed allowed at my wedding, so the maid of honor suggested we give out those bottles of bubbles so people could blow bubbles for us. The church said no go to that one too - even when my new husband and I offered to leave the church and walk through the grass to the car we were told that there was nothing that our guests would be allowed to throw in celebration. It’s a shame that we’re forced to do away with such traditions.
JerryGorton over 14 years ago
Sounds like the usual control freak in charge at that church!
Wesley Brown over 14 years ago
Here’s the scoop from Snopes http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/birdrice.asp
MisngNOLA over 14 years ago
Yeah, if you really want birds to explode you have to throw Alka-Seltzer. Wait, that doesn’t work either?
comixrkl over 14 years ago
LOL. Good one, Peter.
AndiJ over 14 years ago
Bubbles work too!
cdward over 14 years ago
My personal bias against birdseed stems from when I got married. Someone plastered me in the head with the birdseed as we ran by. Some of it went into my ear canal, and although it didn’t cause any damage, I plucked one seed out of my ear a month after the wedding!