Eric Jahn Blog1-12-2008 The Flouring
Nkosi coated in flour
A Jamaican friend's birthday was last night. A group went out to dinner to celebrate. After the birthday song with candled dessert, I asked him "So, what traditions do Jamaicans have to celebrate birthdays?". He responded, "I'm not going to tell you." Which got me curious. Knowing what I was soon to learn, he should've just claimed "Oh, nothing interesting." I proceeded to google search for "Jamaican birthday tradition" on my cell phone, and learned Jamaicans often "flour" the birthday boy/girl. Flouring ideally begins with smearing the victim with egg whites, followed by a liberal dousing with white flour. To make a long (which involved people thinking the waitress was handing us a massive bag of cocaine) story short, we spared him only the egg coating. Afterwards , we asked him if he had ever experienced a flouring before. He replied, "Yes, but not since High School."
