Bananas– The war on wilt, Bananas in human culture

Bananas– The war on wilt, Bananas in human culture, Rody Blom, Saskia Bollerman, Janna Horjus, Koen Rurenga
Bananas have played a significant role in culture and religion.
Banana plants are often used in cuisine, as packaging material, and as religious offerings, for instance.
Additionally, countless references have been made to bananas in pop culture, particularly in music, graphic art, video games, and film and television.
Here, a small selection from a wide range of banana-related religious and cultural practices will be touched upon.
In addition to the consumption of the banana fruits, banana leaves are also often utilized in cuisine.
When banana leaves are used in cuisine, the leaves are in fact not consumed, but rather used as packaging material.
For instance, the Indonesian snack ‘lemper’, which is a roll made of sticky rice and seasoned meat filling, is often packaged in banana leaves.
Additionally, banana leaves are often used in religious and cultural practices.
This occurs predominantly in Buddhism and Hinduism, where banana leaves are used as material to produce offering bowls with or as decoration.
Additionally, in Hinduism banana trees are sacred and considered to be a symbol of fertility, and the leaves are often used in offerings (Lim, 2012).
Interestingly, in addition to Hinduism and Buddhism, cultural uses of bananas have been observed.
For instance, early Hawaiians have used banana suckers as truce flags in times of war (Lim, 2012).
In modern pop culture, bananas are often referred to.
For instance, in 1923, Frank Silver and Irving Cohn composed a song named ‘Yes! We have no bananas’, which became a major hit soon after its release.
The song has been referred to multiple times afterwards, often in context of a banana-related catastrophe.
For instance, New York Times author Dan Koeppel wrote an article about the Cavendish banana and funghal diseases, named ‘Yes, we will have no bananas’ (Koeppel, 2008).
Additionally, in comedic film and television, people are often shown slipping on banana peels.
This gag runs back to at least the early 20th century and is still often used nowadays, even outside of comical film and television (Garrison, 2012).
For instance, in the popular Nintendo videogame ‘Mario Kart’, banana peels are used to make opponents slip and as such, the player gains an advantage over his/her opponents.
Interestingly, the 2014 Ig Nobel Prize, which is awarded to research that is in some way remarkable or comical, was given to researches which clarified the mechanisms behind the slippery nature of banana peels.

Bananas– The war on wilt, Bananas in human culture, Rody Blom, Saskia Bollerman, Janna Horjus, Koen Rurenga
Bananas have played a significant role in culture and religion.
Banana plants are often used in cuisine, as packaging material, and as religious offerings, for instance.
Additionally, countless references have been made to bananas in pop culture, particularly in music, graphic art, video games, and film and television.
Here, a small selection from a wide range of banana-related religious and cultural practices will be touched upon.
In addition to the consumption of the banana fruits, banana leaves are also often utilized in cuisine.
When banana leaves are used in cuisine, the leaves are in fact not consumed, but rather used as packaging material.
For instance, the Indonesian snack ‘lemper’, which is a roll made of sticky rice and seasoned meat filling, is often packaged in banana leaves.
Additionally, banana leaves are often used in religious and cultural practices.
This occurs predominantly in Buddhism and Hinduism, where banana leaves are used as material to produce offering bowls with or as decoration.
Additionally, in Hinduism banana trees are sacred and considered to be a symbol of fertility, and the leaves are often used in offerings (Lim, 2012).
Interestingly, in addition to Hinduism and Buddhism, cultural uses of bananas have been observed.
For instance, early Hawaiians have used banana suckers as truce flags in times of war (Lim, 2012).
In modern pop culture, bananas are often referred to.
For instance, in 1923, Frank Silver and Irving Cohn composed a song named ‘Yes! We have no bananas’, which became a major hit soon after its release.
The song has been referred to multiple times afterwards, often in context of a banana-related catastrophe.
For instance, New York Times author Dan Koeppel wrote an article about the Cavendish banana and funghal diseases, named ‘Yes, we will have no bananas’ (Koeppel, 2008).
Additionally, in comedic film and television, people are often shown slipping on banana peels.
This gag runs back to at least the early 20th century and is still often used nowadays, even outside of comical film and television (Garrison, 2012).
For instance, in the popular Nintendo videogame ‘Mario Kart’, banana peels are used to make opponents slip and as such, the player gains an advantage over his/her opponents.
Interestingly, the 2014 Ig Nobel Prize, which is awarded to research that is in some way remarkable or comical, was given to researches which clarified the mechanisms behind the slippery nature of banana peels.