Fun Facts About Sausage

~Sausage~

• Sausage is believed to have been invented by the Sumerians around 3000 B.C.
  
• The early Catholic Church once made eating sausage a sin. **see footnote
• And Emperor Constantine actually banned the eating of it all together.
• A "Kielbasa" to the U.S. is really a "Cabana" in Australia
• Haggis sounds and probably IS disgusting
• A 'Slim Jim' is actually a pickled sausage, but they thought the term "Beef Stick" would be more appetizing.
• The people of the U.K. are crazy about teh sausage. Bangers and this, bangers and that....
• America, guess what?  The Hot Dog.....IS actually a sausage, not some kind of food genre of its own. Shocking.
• The casing of sausages used to be, (and in some places still is), the intestines of the animal. Mmmmmm. :-P
• In some parts of the world you should be careful about ordering a hot dog sausage, unless you want real dog.

***Footnote***
(From Wiki) >"During the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, sausages were associated with the Lupercalia festival. The early Catholic Church outlawed the Lupercalia Festival and made eating sausage a sin. For this reason, the Roman emperor Constantine banned the eating of sausages."<

Just in case it didn't link it above, the wiki article on the Lupercalia Festival is an interesting read. Some Highlights:

• Young priests (Luperci) are dressed in only goatskins approach the altar after 2 male goats & a dog have been sacrificially killed. Their foreheads are annointed with the bloods of the animals & other magicky things commence.
  
• At the feast that follows the Luperci cut off 2 throngs of goat skin, drop trou (rather drop goatskin), and run off into the city to flog the Roman citizens, especially women looking for fertility magic, all in the name of LUPA: Great She-Wolf who nursed Remus & Romulus.