Do you ever find yourself knocking on wood not to jinx anything you said? I find myself doing it all the time! I will be working and I will say: “I hope it does not get busy! Oh man now because I said that it is going to get busy”. Then I start running around the store looking for wood. Am I the only one who is that obsessed with knocking on wood? The funny thing is I don’t even know why I do it. I doubt knocking on wood is going to predict my future or my fate. I thought about this and decided I should research this.
On the website, mentalfloss.com
they say: “ Before
Christianity and Islam came around to spoil the party with their rules about
idolatry, many pagan groups and other cultures—from Ireland to India to
elsewhere in the world—worshipped or mythologized trees. Some peoples used
trees as oracles, some incorporated them into worship rituals and some, like
the ancient Celts, regarded them as the homes of certain spirits and gods.”From what I understand, many religions believed that some trees were oracles and spirits or gods lived in the trees. Knowing this people knock on the tree to receive good luck from the magical tree. Another origin much like the first says, tree worshippers would put their hands on a tree and ask a favor from the spirits and gods in the trees. Therefore after many of years it morphed into knocking to keep good luck (mentalfloss).
Knocking on wood is also to ward off any evil or any bad luck. The knock on wood is then to give good fortune. There is also the saying “ touch wood” which is essentially the same as knock on wood although touch on wood is the older version and has evolved into knocking.
Maybe after reading this you will see yourself knocking on wood more often. I was surprised with this supersitition with the lack of history. Basically they say it evolved after the so believed, magic tree. Although maybe some believe there really is no history. So my question as alsways is, what do you believe?
I found this video that i really loved. It explains the history of many superstitions including knowcking on wood!
Sites
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tou1.htm
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50079/why-do-we-knock-wood#ixzz2iaveW2Yxhttp://mentalfloss.com/article/50079/why-do-we-knock-wood#ixzz2iauSre4D
I do this all the time and I never knew the history. Incredibly interesting.
ReplyDeleteNow that you know the history behind these superstitions, does it change your perspective? Will you continue believing them and acting upon them, or will you try to get rid of them?