Centuries of immigration and adaptation have shaped the contours of American culture. As a result, a variety of different national cultures are present in American customs and traditions. Good luck charms offer an illustration of how other nations have contributed to American beliefs and practices. These superstitious totems achieved their place due to their rarity, their religious symbolism, and of course tradition. Certainly objects that are difficult to find are considered lucky by those who find them, and the religious backgrounds of American immigrants ensured that certain material objects carried meaning and significance. Traces of folkloric traditions in the identification and use of good luck charms are easy to detect in American history and contemporary life.
Good luck charms abound in the present day, but their use and meaning have long histories that stretch back into the distant past. For example, the wishbone, a popular good luck charm in many cultures, is believed to have originated in the Etruscan civilization of ancient Italy more than 2,000 years ago. A wishbone is the furcula bone between the neck and breast in a bird, also known as a small clavicle bone. Although some believe that carrying a wishbone-shaped object around will bring good luck, the good fortune contained in the object is thought to come when two people hold opposite ends of the bone and snap it in half. The person with the larger piece receives good luck.
Another popular good luck charm, an object prized for its rarity, is the four-leaf clover. Only one in 10,000 clover plants have the mutation that produces the extra fourth leaf. Many different explanations can be found for why four-leaf clovers are considered lucky. There are accounts of the four-leaf clover being used by Druid priests in Celtic pagan religion to ward off evil spirits. Several sources point to a quote from English politician John Melton in 1620: “If a man walking in the fields finds any four-leafed grass, he shall in a small while after find some good thing” (Wessner 2001, 76). This indicates that perhaps the superstition of four-leaf clovers had reached widespread currency in England before the period of large-scale migration to the New World. In American culture, the symbolism of the four-leaf clover can be found throughout history and in a wide variety of literatures, and of course it is a popular object in jewelry, tattoos, and other adornments.
A display of copper amulets for sale. Good luck charms have been a staple of American folklore since earliest times, and each succeeding wave of immigrants has brought new variations on this age-old theme. In addition to ancient beliefs in the powers of certain charms to bring good fortune and to ward off evil, New Age proponents sometimes attribute physical and mental health benefits to the wearing of certain types of amulets. (Anna Yakimova/Dreamstime.com)
Nature provides other charms in addition to wishbones and four-leaf clovers. Rabbits are considered lucky in many world cultures, and so through immigration and cultural adaptation, the rabbit’s foot has become a good luck charm in American society. Its compact size and furry covering make the rabbit’s foot a popular object to carry around. It appears in African American folklore as a good luck charm since the rabbit symbolizes overcoming difficult situations such as slavery and later, racial discrimination. The rabbit’s foot is a common object in hoo-doo, a type of African American folk magic, and its association with spiritual health and healing gives it particular significance in certain communities where traditional forms of African American spirituality are practiced.
Charms can also derive from human craftsmanship as well. In Native American traditions, dream catchers were hung over the bed to ward off nightmares and other bad energies and spirits. The intricate object has the appearance of a spiderweb and often contains tassels, feathers, and beads. While the string takes away the bad, the extra accessories, like the feathers, are believed to be responsible for letting in the good. These objects have a rich tradition as well as contemporary significance in modern Native American culture. Other manufactured objects have some sort of value as luck-conferring symbols, such as pennies or horseshoes found on the pathway, parking lot, or sidewalk.
According to another superstition, crossing one’s index and middle fingers and wishing for success can bring good luck or ward off bad spirits. There is a theory that crossed fingers derives from premodern geometrical ideas in Europe. According to this notion, good spirits inhabit the intersection of crosses. Therefore, to make a wish come true one person would hold out an index finger and make a wish, while in solidarity and support, another would cross the index finger with his or her own. Of course the cross possessed immense symbolic power in Christianized Europe and in places throughout the New World where Europeans transplanted their religious culture.
In like manner, those who wish to obtain good luck might toss a pinch of salt over the shoulder. This may be one of the oldest and most well-known charms throughout the world. With heavy religious connotation, the act of throwing salt over one’s left shoulder is believed to blind the devil. Blinding the devil with salt will either keep him at bay, or give one time to correct the mistakes one has made before the devil makes them worse. However, over the years, the religious meaning of the ritual has waned and today the practice stems from a superstition regarding spilled salt.
Finally, shooting stars are included on many lists of good luck signs. According to ancient writers, the gods peer down at earth from between the spheres and when they do, some stars fall or shoot across the sky. Because the gods are already looking our way, this is the best time to make a wish because it has a better chance of being heard and granted. In the Native American context, Mi’kmaqs in the northeastern region and the Canadian maritimes told a legend in which two sisters loved to watch the sky, but on one of their skywatching excursions they became lost in the woods. They saw an eagle and a hawk in the stars, and the birds swooped down and took them up to heaven. After praying to return home because they missed their family, they were granted their wish on the condition that they not look backward on their way home. Unfortunately, in hopes of making sure her sister was following, the younger sister looked back and then immediately burst into flames. Thus the legend states that when one sees a shooting star, it is the younger sister still trying to return home.
Hex Signs
Hex signs, sometimes called “barn stars,” are colorful decorations traditionally found on Pennsylvania Dutch barns; contrary to popular belief, they are a product of “Fancy Dutch” rather than “Plain Dutch” culture, and thus are not to be associated with the Amish, most of whom would consider such decorations vain. Generally thought to bring good luck, hex signs often include star patterns, “Distelfinks” (goldfinches), and hearts. Probably among the most commonly recognized aspects of Pennsylvania Dutch culture among the “English” (Anglophone Americans), these signs date back more than two hundred years and are popularly thought to ward off evil.
C. Fee
The good luck charm is perhaps the most ordinary point of connection between people in the modern world and traditional, centuries-old folk beliefs. Charms are a household staple as well as a common point of reference in literature, television, and film. Although the objects and signs vary and the meanings attached to them differ, every culture represented in the United States maintains beliefs about good fortune (or warding off bad luck) in relation to certain material objects or signs.
Alexandria P. Ayala
See also Superstitions; Voodoo
Further Reading
Clark, Lisa Fields. 2015. Good Luck Charms and Protective Amulets: Their Meanings and Origins. Las Vegas: Cats After Dark Press.
Coffin, Tristram Potter, and Hennig Cohen. 1986. Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama, and Folk Festivals, with 17 Folk Melodies. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Harris, Bill. 1999. The Good Luck Book: An A-to-Z Guide to Charms and Symbols. New York: Gramercy Books.
Wessner, Cecilia, ed. 2001. “FYI: Ask Popular Science.” Popular Science 259 (2): 72–76. Available online at https://books.google.com/books?id=iUuvdN3MGwEC&dq.