Top 10 ritual drinking vessels

Across cultures and religions, the ritual drinking of alcohol forms an important part of many social gatherings. In some rituals they reinforce a sense of community and in others it’s about demonstrating social hierarchy.

Whatever the ritual, if it involves drinking, then you need a suitable vessel from which to take the drink. Over the centuries humans have developed elaborate, fanciful and inventive ways of holding the liquid, whether it’s wine, beer, or whatever is required for that ceremony.

Sometimes these ceremonies are religious in character, while others are more communal in nature.

Quaich

A Quaich is a shallow drinking cup with its origins in Scotland, traditionally made from wood, but often fashioned from silver or other metals. It has two handles, and would be filled with whisky or brandy.

Traditionally the filled quaich would be passed to an honoured visitor by the host as a welcome or farewell toast. The host and guest would give and receive the cup with both hands in a demonstration of friendship, showing that neither hand was about to grasp a weapon.

It’s still much used in modern times, whether at weddings as a ‘loving cup’ or as part of Burns Night celebrations.

Yard of Ale

Not really the most sacred of rituals, but the Yard of Ale has a long place in the culture of drinking, bringing friends together around competitive drinking.

It’s a long glass (roughly a yard long in fact, or 90 centimetres if you prefer), and consists of a tapering funnel with a round bowl at the base.

The yard of ale originated in 17th century England, and drinking from them was particularly associated with stagecoach drivers. The association may have been reinforced because the shape of the glass is reminiscent of the old post horns carried on some stagecoaches

The art of drinking from a yard is all about managing the rush of ale that comes in the final part. As the spherical bowl at the bottom empties, the contents tend to flood out of the flared end and risk covering the drinker with spilled beer.

Top tip: keep rotating the glass as you drink to ensure a steady flow of beer and avoid getting wet.

However, drinking a yard of ale is no longer generally recommended as a part of a responsible, modern drinking culture.

Drinking Horn

Drinking vessels made from the polished horn of cattle, goats and oxen have been used across Europe and the Caucasus for millenia. Practical containers making use of readily available natural products later gave way to heavily ritualised forms of the vessels, adorned with silver and gold.

The Vikings were big users of drinking horns. In Norse mythology the God Thor drank from a giant horn that unknown to him contained all the waters of the sea, while the epic tale Beowulf describes the ritual drinking of mead from carved drinking horns.

In later times, into the Medieval period, the Bayeux tapestry shows a feasting scene before King Harold sets off for Normandy, with several revellers drinking from horns.

Porron

Across Spain, the Porron is used to humiliate tourists and cause repeated wine spillages over face and shirt, but in traditional guise away from themed restaurants it’s a long-standing way of sharing wine amongst a group of friends or colleagues.

The vessel is a sort of cross between a bottle and a teapot, with a corked top and a narrow tapering spout. The putative drinkers tilt the bottle towards their mouth and drink the stream of wine that flows out. As confidence and spirits grow, the bottle is moved yet further from the mouth, demonstrating the skill and accuracy of the drinker.

Author George Orwell was not a fan. Writing in Homage to Catalonia, he describes the experience:  “A porron is a sort of glass bottle with a pointed spout from which a thin jet of wine spurts out whenever you tip it up; you can thus drink from a distance, without touching it with your lips, and it can be passed from hand to hand. I went on strike and demanded a drinking-cup as soon as I saw a porron in use. To my eye the things were altogether too like bed-bottles, especially when they were filled with white wine.”

Claret Jug

Now best known in its guise as a sporting trophy, the Claret Jug is an elaborate and ornate receptacle for the reds of Bordeaux.

In the early 19th century, silversmiths began to modify designs of glass wine holders in metal, and they became increasingly elaborate. In some, the body of the jug continued to be made of glass, with handles and a hinged pouring lid increasingly made of silver.

These became part of the ritual of the Victorian dining table, and represented the success of the host, and symbolised the level of hospitality being received by the guest.

As the Victorian era progressed, a desire for increasingly outlandish and elaborate designs took over, and the claret jug became enormously ornate.

Rhyton

The Rhyton is a highly stylised and wonderfully elaborate drinking vessel, taking the traditional drinking horn as its starting point, but with no hint of an actual horn.

Commonly used across Ancient Greece and Persia, these vessels were created from gold and silver and were used as part of ritual libation ceremonies.

The rhytons generally have a wide funnel-shaped mouth at the top, and a hole at the base. The vessels were filled from the top, with the drinkers thumb closing the hole at the base. For drinking, the user would lift the vessel to his mouth, uncover the hole and let the liquid flow. Alternatively, for ritual ceremonies, the liquid would have been emptied onto the ground as a form of sacrificial offering.

Gourd / Calabash

A hollowed gourd, pumpkin or calabash is the receptacle of choice across many parts of Africa and also South America for ritual drinking.

Often associated with communal rites around the consumption of palm wine, freshly-fermented and getting more potent by the hour, the gourd is handed around the gathered group, or used as a serving vessel for transfer into smaller gourd cups.

The sharing of a cup of palm wine is also part of many West African wedding rituals.

Chalice

A central part of the Christian ceremonial, the Chalice is an important feature of communion, where the blood of Christ is shared in the form of wine.

Symbolic of the ritual of the Last Supper in the New Testament gospels, the chalice is at its simplest just a cup, but over the centuries has been embodied in elaborate gold and silver versions reflecting its elevated position in Christian tradition, as part of the Eucharist.

The legend of the Holy Grail has also immortalised the position of the Chalice in popular culture, ably helped by the likes of Monty Python and Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.

Kiddush Cup

Reflecting the common traditions in Judaeism and Chrsitianity, wine has a central role in the ritual of the Jewish faith.

The Kiddush Cup is used in the ceremony of Kiddush where a blessing is said over a glass of wine or grape juice to sanctify the Shabbat and other religious festivals.

Any cup can be used, but the Kiddush Cups are often made from ornate, engraved silver.

Once the person reciting the kiddush has drunk some of the wine from the cup, the rest of it is passed around the table or poured out into small cups for the other participants.

While the Chalice of Christian tradition is part of a Church-based service and held by a priest or clergyman, the Kiddush Cup is part of a more intimate domestic ceremony performed by the householder.

Tiki Bowl

Tiki culture in Polynesia, and particularly in Hawaii, has a stong traditional origin, despite its subversion by American Tiki bars in the mid-twentieth century.

The Tiki mugs and bowls now used for cocktails, do have an origin as part of traditional Tiki ceremonies.

Tiki carvings and representations on bowls are of a number of Polynesian gods, and the bowls were used as communal and ceremonial drinking vessels as part of traditional religious practice.