Using olive oil is not a always a common practice:

It is also a ritual and gives the ability to experience tradition.

It’s not only about food or cuisine: the legendary olive tree and oil that comes from its fruits have been part of the history of humanity for over 8000 years. In Greek mythology Zeus gave the olive tree as a gift to mankind. It was also a sacred symbol for the kings of Israel and for the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. In the traditional Christian societies, such as ours, oil has been used for rituals for centuries, for baptism and for the extreme unction after death. Our seafloors are littered with amphorae, which were used to transport oil for millennia to share the goodness of this product to all of the populations of the Mediterranean…till the present day when the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, often associated with Italy, definitely proved the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil.
The oil is freshly squeezed from the fruit just like a juice, and extra virgin olive oil is the only vegetable oil obtained by only applying pressure, without manipulation or using chemical additives.
In fact, the extra virgin olive oil preserves most of the nutrients and antioxidants in the fruit, unlike any other oils, because of the simple extraction process used. For this reason, extra virgin olive oil is the product with the highest quality in oil production.