The name bilikum comes from the German word willkommen.

Bilikum was any vessel from which a toast was drunk in honor of coming to someone’s house. The most famous are bilikums in three parts (the word trilikum, which people associate with a three-part vessel, is an incorrect name and means nothing), but bilikum could have been the most common purchase.

Drinking bilikum was a very important act and as such was immediately entered into the house protocol. It was a book in which everything was recorded, from information about who drank bilikum and thus became a family friend, to other important information such as the birth, marriage or death of a family member, but also how he gave birth on the farm, what it was like harvest, how much must was obtained and the like.

The house protocol was the most important book in every house and was kept in a special place, usually under lock and key.