Willow's Weekly Word

While cleaning up the Manor from the aftermath of Thanksgiving,

I found this dried wishbone hanging on the wine rack above the oven.

One particular person I know loves to save them every time he carves

the turkey! I often find them, days later, hanging to dry in odd places.

I can actually remember seeing them tied up with ribbons to adorn gift

packages in the 1950's. (Ick!) I thought you might enjoy a little

background on the quirky tradition of the luck of the wishbone this

week instead of our usual etymology.

The wishbone is the third member of the great Euro-American lucky

charm triumvirate, the other two being the horseshoe and the four

leaf clover. Sometimes called the "merrythought" in the British Isles,

the wishbone is a bone overlying the breastbone of fowl, but most

especially the chicken and the turkey. It is the custom to save this

bone intact when carving the bird at dinner and to dry it over the

stove or by the fire or, sometimes, to dry it for three days in the air,

three being a fortuitous magical number until it is brittle. Once the

merrythought is dry, it is given to two people, who pull it apart until

it cracks and breaks, each one making a wish while doing so. The

person who gets the long half of the wishbone will have his or her

wish come true. If the wishbone breaks evenly, both parties get their

wishes. In some families it is said that the wish will only come true

if it is not revealed to anyone. Because of its association with

conviviality and festive dinners, the wishbone has a long history of

use in holiday cards. The wishbone is found on numerous Good Luck

postcards of the era. In the 1930s, the wishbone was a common

image on North American good luck coins and one could even buy

little gold or silver wishbone charms; but by the 1990s it, like that

other dead animal part, the rabbit foot, had fallen out of favour with

the makers of lucky amulets.

Thanks to Falling apart Trisha on Answerbag for this info.