Saturday, November 20, 2010

merrythought


Since we've been discussing all things auspicious this week, one particular person I know loves to save a wishbone every time he carves the turkey. I often find them, days later, hanging to dry in odd places around the manor. When I was a girl, I remember seeing them tied up with ribbons to adorn gift packages in the 1950's. I posted on this subject a few years ago, but thought you might enjoy a little reprise on the background of the quirky tradition of the luck of the wishbone.


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.


43 comments:

  1. I too remember as a girl growing up in England, my grandma used to dry the wishbone on top of her Iga cooker. It was always a special treat if pulling the wishbone with pinkie fingers only, the larger portion of the bone broke in your favor.
    Say a wish, everyone would shout !
    As with many other traditions, it seems to have sadly gone by the wayside.
    So enjoyed this post !

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  2. Oh, I love this. My sisters and I always fought over the wishbone -- and I've passed the tradition on to my two sons.

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  3. I am shocked to hear that there may be people in the world who DON'T pull wishbones!

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  4. Nice to learn something today, that I didn't know!

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  5. Oh,yes, pulling the wishbone was and remains an annual tradition. Who gets to make their wishes is part of the fun!

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  6. Growing up in a family with six children, you felt "lucky" if you even got a chance with the wishbone. :-)

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  7. I remember pulling wishbones well from my childhood. But in those days having a chicken was something special, something that only tended to happen at Christmas and perhaps Easter. Now chickens are everyday things and the wishbones are no more than surplus packaging.

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  8. Well, it's not often that we have a whole chicken or turkey these days, but pulling the wishbone used to be a fun part of our Christmas celebrations.

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  9. Thanks for talking about wishbones, they hold many memories for me as well. Merry thoughts to you.

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  10. Willow,
    I thought you might mention that the wish bone resembles the number 11, also a number of good omen.
    Is there any correlation between getting the shorter bone to the saying; I got the short end of the stick?
    rel

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  11. A wonderful little post, Willow. I love these little bits of history and lore.

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  12. The wishbone was always hung up to dry on the handle of one of the kitchen cupboards. I bet if I asked my mom, that's where her mom hung it to dry too.

    You brought back some wonderful memories for me Willow.

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  13. I remember the wishbone from childhood and my children still like to pull it for luck. Nice post.

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  14. willow i've known about the wishbone since coming to canada but the merrythought is a revelation. i had never drawn all three elements together. thanks for enlightening me! steven

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  15. smiles. this brought back great memories we had 3 kids in the fam so it was a battle to who got to do the breaking.

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  16. We kids always wanted to get the wishbone but usually couldn't wait for the drying out part! So much more acceptable than a rabbit's foot!
    I also enjoyed reading your 11:11 poem, Willow, and the lovely photographs of "your" deer. They do have elegance and grace.

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  17. Oh, I always save them. there are always a half dozen or so waiting for anyone who needs a wish.

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  18. Interesting...I have never noticed wishbones on holiday cards and I love the one you displayed in your post. I am now mentally reviewing childhood memories of the wishbone drying on the window sill so that my brother and I could compete in our annual wishbone pulling contest. I hated it when I lost.

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  19. Yes, I agree a rabbit's foot would be weird since we have a pet rabbit! ha. I do have a sterling wishbone charm!

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  20. It may be tradition, a fun thing to do. But there are some who swore by it. Their luck turned out to be for the better after pulling apart a wish-bone some few months ago.

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  21. nice post. love that postcard. i have a wishbone from last year still hooked over my garlic dish on the counter.

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  22. Willow, just wanted to let you know my husband also loves your blog! Lovely post.

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  23. I always save the wishbones! Thanks for that interesting history; didn't know anything about that. When I was a teenager, I saved the bone and painted it with bright pink nail polish--most people were not amused! :)

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  24. I am another wishbone saver. I never pull them, just save them and hang them up wherever I see a nail....
    ==lennie==

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  25. Pat, I love it. This year that baby's going PINK!!

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  26. Angella, oh, that's so sweet. I'm so glad your husband is enjoying WM, too!

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  27. My Irish Father introduce my Mother and myself to this tradition.... I love it!

    Hugs,

    ♥ Robin ♥

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  28. I remember us fighting over who would get to pull on the wishbone. I was always nervous, hoping it would break "the right way."

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  29. Ooh, I didn't know you had to dry them first! We do the pulling thing as soon as the carcass is cool enough - the greasiness makes it so much fun!

    And as for bones hanging up drying in parts of the house? A little bit Texas Chainsaw for me...

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  30. Nice tile the wishbone is lying on. I love drying them in the cabinet and then months later re-discovering them just when I wish is needed.

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  31. We always loved to pull the wishbone, but I ahrdly ever cook a whole bird now, with two vegetarian kids.
    Don't think I'd like to get a wishbone on a card- I'd find that a bit creepy.
    Happy Thanksgiving to all at Willow Manor!

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  32. 'merrythought', i'd not heard that before

    this reminds me of my grandparents and great aunts though, childhood memories of pulling and wishing

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  33. Thanks, Linda, I like to find pretty old tiles, put felt tabs on the bottom and use them as coasters.

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  34. It's such a simple little thing, isn't it? But look how long it has lasted and how so many people from different parts of the world can identify with it and be reminded of a family tradition or story.

    Simple gifts.

    Thanks, Willow

    ~Rene

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  35. This was such a wonderful post on a great subject. I really am glad I stopped by. Happy Thanksgiving. I hope all your wishes come true.

    yvonne

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  36. willow -- I was not familiar with the word merrythought for a wishbone -- it is certainly a great descriptive word for it. I thought you might be also interested in this post on the anatomy of the wishbone, http://www.wqed.org/birdblog/?s=wishbone&submit=GO

    Thanks for the informative post -- barbara

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  37. Barbara, thanks for the link, I'm off to check it out... :)

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  38. A veritable font of trivia and fun,
    our Miss Willow. And a nice post
    from the Irish lass reminding us
    that luck has been the staple of
    the Emerald Isle, and their marvelous
    bits of whimsey have become part
    of all of our lives. Love that pic of
    the antique holiday card. Have
    you seen the Japanese and other
    oriental Christmas cards? I wonder
    if the wishbone tradition has any
    connection to the i ching, or other
    bone reading, or rock reading, or
    tea leaf reading?

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  39. I once dried the wishbones of two cornish hens, painted them with red nail polish, and attached wire earring hardware. Looking back on it, I suppose it was a bit like Luna Lovegood's radish earrings.

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  40. I do not remember ever having heard of the wishbone as a lucky charm during my childhood days in Austria, even though we had turkey for Christmas dinner (eight kids necessitated more than the goose most Austrians roast). It was my children who introduced the pulling apart of the wishbone to our family, alas, they did it right at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

    I wonder if that wishbone charm is known in continental Europe or only in the British Isles.

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  41. Cute little cornish hen wishbone earrings. Marcheline, I LOVE it!!

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  42. Interesting. I love me a bit of history. I can never remember which part grants the wish - the long or the short - so in my version both are winners.

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  43. how very curious,I'm not american and dont celebrate thanksgiving obviously and dont know much of it.But I found a wishbone on the back verandah this morning had'nt seen one for trillions of years,and thought to myself i must look up the symbolism of wishbones and then completely forge.Now 10.23pm in sydney with a quick visit to your blog there it is.

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)