Teaspoons are a symbol of British culture and British people often buy them as souvenirs of their holidays.

茶匙是英国文化的象征。英国人经常购买它们作为假期的纪念品。

A long time ago, in Britain, if you went to a restaurant you took your own cutlery. For poor people, spoons were made of wood or pewter. Rich people would have a handmade spoon made of silver. This is the origin of the common English phrase ‘to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth’ which indicates that someone’s family is rich.

很久以前，在英国，如果你去一家餐馆，你会带上自己的餐具。对于穷人来说，勺子是用木头或锡制成的。有钱人会有一把银制的手工勺子。这就是英语俗语“含着金汤匙出生”的由来，表示某人的家庭很富有。

 

In the Victorian era (1837 – 1901), Great Britain moved from being an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. Great Britain was known as the ‘workshop of the world’. Many household items such as cutlery became mass produced and thus easily affordable to many British people. At this time, the showcase for British engineering skills was ‘The Great Exhibition’ (1851). This exhibition was equivalent to a World Fair. People came from all over the world to visit the exhibition and then visit places of interest around Britain. These visitors would buy decorative teaspoons as souvenirs of the places that they had visited. This custom then spread throughout Europe and especially to America. This tradition continues to this day particularly by older ladies who often will have a collection of such spoons.

在维多利亚时代（18371901），英国从农业经济转向工业经济。英国被称为“世界工厂”。餐具等许多家居用品开始批量生产使越来越多的英国人可以买得起这些东西。(1851年的“万国工业展览会”展示了当时英国的工业技术水平)。这个展览相当于一个世界博览会。人们从世界各地赶来参观展览，然后参观英国各地的名胜古迹。这些游客会购买装饰性茶匙作为他们去过的地方的纪念品。这种习俗随后传遍了整个欧洲，尤其是美洲。这一传统一直延续到今天，尤其是年长的女士们，她们经常会收集这样的勺子。

 

Spoons are also a traditional gift to babies from godparents at christenings. Rich people used to give a set of silver spoons consisting of one larger spoon representing Jesus or Mary, and twelve smaller spoons representing Jesus’s disciples. These sets of spoons are known as ‘apostle spoons’. Poorer godparents would give fewer or only a single spoon. Full sets of antique apostle spoons are now rare and are very expensive to buy. Today godparents prefer to give cup, plate and spoons sets decorated with animals or cartoon characters.

在洗礼仪式上，勺子也是教父母送给婴儿的传统礼物。有钱人过去常常赠送一套银汤匙，其中一个较大的汤匙代表耶稣或玛丽，十二个较小的汤匙代表耶稣的门徒。这些勺子套装被称为“使徒勺子”。较贫穷的教父母会提供更少或只提供一个勺子。全套古董使徒汤匙现在已经很少见，而且购买起来非常昂贵。现在教父母更喜欢赠送装饰有动物或卡通人物的杯子、盘子和勺子套装。