Interesting Fact of the Day...

My husband and I wished on our wishbone and look what happened!

Luckily, I know the basic ins and outs of wish-making.

So, here's your interesting fact of the day...

Our tradition of wishing on wishbones goes all the way back to the ancient Etruscans. They'd write their alphabet in a circle in the dirt and put grain at each letter. Then, they'd put a chicken in the middle. As the chicken pecked and ate the feed, someone would keep track of the order of the letters the bird ate from.

It was basically a Ouija Board.

Then, after killing the chicken for food, they'd keep the wishbone (the furcula) as a talisman because it is the bone that gives them flight. I suppose they thought it carried their wishes off to the heavens. The Etruscans would carry the bone with them as a lucky charm. They'd rub it and hold it and make wishes on it.

The Romans eventually came along and saw what the Etruscans were doing and wanted in on the luck so they started saving the wishbones from chickens and carrying them around as talisman too. But...there must have been a poultry shortage because there weren't enough furcula bones to go around. Eventually the Romans started pulling them apart (like we do now) and saying whoever got the bigger piece got the wish.

So, I've concluded that both my husband and I get our wishes since it's the bone itself that brings the luck, not the person who gets the bigger piece.

Makes sense in my mind anyhow!