Yesterday, I thought what can an onion symbolize? By the way, I wasn’t cooking.
At the beginning, I thought of onions and tears, they are close friends or may be relatives. Slicing and chopping more than one and my eyes would be like a hot water tap, turned on gradually, first shedding warm drops, and then in a second pouring hot burning tears. Not to forget onions beautiful fragrance that stuck in the mother’s hands when cooking dinner for her family. In short, the first thing came to my mind was: an onion symbolizes mother’s suffering in her cooking journey.
But what if we take this vegetable away from the mother’s hands, study its nutrition, health and economical facts, either on its own or in comparison to its family members, would this little herb-plant have a different connotation?
I think, yes it is.
Yes, it’s true, onions are humble givers, known of their abundant harvest and modest price; they are available all year, all over the world, in every kitchen, vegetable market and food store, and with different sizes and colours. And through the ages, onions have also been known as a natural preventive medicine (especially for cold) though this is mainly for raw ones as it’s said that this benefit is destroyed by heat. Onions can protect our bodies and help defend against those nasty viruses using its great natural power, so they are powerful too.
And can its swirly white layers symbolize unity, purity and beauty, may be!
It’s just an onion but it can symbolize too many things.
In Egypt we usually refer to that person poking his/her nose into others’ business to be like an onion found in every recipe; poor onions, meddling with others’ affairs connotes incivility, but it’s just a saying!
Wishing you all the best,
Nahla
Pure and Simple 
This reminds me, I just planted a bulb of onion this morning in a pot. I notice that it has around four inches of green shoots.
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They grow so fast too.
Thanks Arlene for reading
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Nahla my dear that is a beautiful photo of the humble vegetable. I love onions and I know for a fact they are one of my cooking Staples. 🌹
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I got this photo from google. Yes onions are found in every kitchen
Thanks so much for reading
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I found onion and garlic in 95% of the recipes. Onion has many health benefits to the body, even though, regretfully, my stomach is allergic to onion. Very nice post and lovely image, Nahla!
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Thanks Mariam so much for reading
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You’re welcome, Nahla!
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Thanks Miriam ( sorry i wrote your name like my daughter’s)
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Oh, I’m glad to know that your daughter’s name is Mariam. It’s a variation of the original name Miriam, then Mary, Mariam, Marian, Mimi…!
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Thank you
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You’re welcome, Nahla!
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Wonderful metaphors here Nahla. I often refer to our many layers as a human being liken to an onion.. We build them up over time.. protecting like outerskins from the wounds, the hurts the tears inflicted.. It may take many years to peel those layers back, to get to the heart,
So I was very interested in reading your thoughts about onions..
Thank you .. Where would we be with out the Onion.. 🙂
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Thanks Sue, yours is so deep too, i haven’t thought that way.
Thanks for reading and your comment
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My Pleasure… xx Sorry I have been absent.. But I have not been travelling around WP as often… So I was very happy to see you and catch up here a little.. You write extremely well.. xxx
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Thanks so much
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