My son likes Lucky Charms cereal. It’s his favorite. And it’s all about the marshmallows. If you have ever had Lucky Charms you know what I am talking about. There is a rainbow of marshmallowy goodness in the bowl. The cereal was created in 1964 when product developer John Holahan cut up some circus peanuts and dropped them into Cheerios. The marshmallow shapes have changed over the years and now include such “lucky” things as diamonds, horseshoes, and four-leaf clovers. Those shapes got me thinking recently: “Why are certain things considered lucky?”
Have you ever wondered about that? Our society has a log of good luck items or actions. But why? Why do we associate certain things with luck? I dug a little and found some things about some of these lucky charms.
First we will tackle horseshoes. The first horseshoes were made out of iron, and it was believed that iron was an effective deterrent for evil. There are folktales and stories of mischievous fairy folk who were thwarted by iron. The crescent shape of the shoe was also a symbol of fertility and good luck. Medieval times brought with them a fear of witchcraft, and horseshoes helped here too. Witches were thought to hate horses and anything to do with them. People thought a horseshoe could keep away witches just as a crucifix could keep away a vampire.
Rabbit’s feet are another lucky item, especially in the United States. The practice of carrying around one began with the Romans who believed they could cure gout. Later Europeans carried the paws of rabbits, hares, and moles in order to cure things such as cramps, toothaches, and rheumatism. But in America we took this to another level. We believed in the power of cutting off a rabbit’s foot when it was on someone’s grave. Apparently, the more wicked the person, the more powerful the foot of the rabbit was that was taken from killing it on that person’s grave. Grover Cleveland had a rabbit’s foot taken from a rabbit killed on the grave of Jesse James.
I have never found a four-leaf clover, despite my best efforts to the contrary. But I bet you have, or at least know someone who has spotted one. The Celts of old are to blame for this one. They considered the four-leaf clover to be very lucky as a protective charm from evil spirits.
Here is another one for you: knocking on wood. You have done it, haven’t you? You probably also said the phrase sometimes. We don’t know exactly how this one started but we have some competing theories. One is from the Celts who believed spirits lived in trees. Knocking on tree trunks was thought to someone communicate with these spirits in an effort to gain good luck from them. Another story goes the other way. People may have knocked on wood to chase away evil spirits in the wood.
Have you ever thrown a coin into a fountain? Why? Aren’t you literally throwing away money? One explanation for how this got started lies with Roman-British and Celtic mythology. The thought was that water contained spirits due to its life importance. Money put in the water was a kind of offering to the spirits.
What do all of these “lucky” things have in common? They are all linked somehow to the spiritual world. Every one of them has its roots in some supernatural belief. This makes me ask the question in terms of Christianity and Judaism. Is there luck in the Bible?
Well, people certainly did cast lots. That was the practice of throwing sticks or stones on the ground and interpreting the way they fell as being God’s will. The practice is mentioned 70 times in the Old Testament and 7 times in the New Testament.
Numbers 26:52-56
52 The Lord said to Moses, 53 “The land is to be allotted to them as an inheritance based on the number of names. 54 To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one; each is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those listed. 55 Be sure that the land is distributed by lot. What each group inherits will be according to the names for its ancestral tribe. 56 Each inheritance is to be distributed by lot among the larger and smaller groups.”
Joshua 18:3-6
3 So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you? 4 Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me. 5 You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the tribes of Joseph in their territory on the north. 6 After you have written descriptions of the seven parts of the land, bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the Lord our God.
Matthew 27:35
35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Doesn’t this remind you of gambling? Isn’t this kind of like throwing dice or flipping a coin? Yet the practice was fully sanctioned by the early Israelites and lasted a long time. In the Bible, it lasted right up until Jesus was crucified. After that we don’t see it anymore. I think that is spiritually significant. The last time the practice is shown is at the crucifixion. And then shortly afterward we get the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The implication is that we don’t need to fabricate any kind of random connection to God’s Will anymore. The Holy Spirit is with us and is a spiritual guide. We don’t need luck anymore. In fact we have never needed it.
We are not lucky to have God in our lives. We are meant to have God in our lives.
God Bless