Research fallout: menstrual rituals, their origins and meaning

I'm taking a break from the novel to try to resurrect a story that's been in the trunk for a while. Because the story is so tied up with life cycles, I decided I wanted to include a scene having to do with the protagonist's first menstruation (which will play into the plot later). The idea brought back a conversation I had with my mother when I had my first period, about the custom of a mother slapping her daughter when she has her first period. (My mother didn't slap me; she only told me about it.)

I never thought much about this conversation until this morning, but it goaded me all morning, this idea of smacking your kid when she becomes a woman. So I did what any tech-savvy woman would do: I turned to the Internet! I searched on "menstruation, slapping." I discovered this essay (among others): "The Tradition of Slapping Our Daughters".

Turns out that this tradition is a cultural one, specific to Ashkenazic Jews and to populations in some parts of Eastern Europe. The way my mother presented it to me, it was a much more general sort of thing. This, I got the impression, was what everyone once did. Of course, menstruation was such a taboo subject for my mother's generation, and more so for her mother's, that I'm not surprised this ritual was presented as What Women Do rather than as What Jewish Women Do or What Eastern European Women Do.

So much of the other material that turned up in the results was gentler (some was a little woo-woo); this ritual stood out. Now, the reason it came to my mind in the first place is that it's perfect given the relationship between the mother and daughter in this story, but (as such things are wont to do), it makes me wonder what other baggage it might bring to the narrative. Having discovered that this ritual seems particular to my cultural heritage, I wonder how generally known it really is. I've decided I'm going to pass over that for now; there's a point to be made about the mother's experience with this scene so I'm just going to write it.

But I do wonder: How many of you have heard of this ritual? Did any of the women on my flist experience this ritual? Do you have a Jewish or Eastern European background or heritage? Other thoughts on the subject?

Points to those who get my rather obscure use of this particular icon for this subject matter.

Wordage update

1,650 words on the redraft of "The Winter Wife." I'm wordblind.

I need to go eat something.