"To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone" Reba McEntire
Shane and I posing with our last Christmas turkey wishbone. How many of you remember breaking the Christmas turkey breast bone after it dried sufficiently on the windowsill? As kids we would fight over who would get a turn even though it was remembered who had the favour the previous year! That was important stuff, the chance to make a dream come true! Like blowing out candles on a birthday cake it was not to be dismissed lightly!
Sunday I had a fit of conscience and decided to get down and dirty with cleaning my house. I was dusting around the orchids on the windowsill and found the bone from the Christmas turkey. Hubby is coming home in about a week, which is the reason for the clean, and we'll break it then. I don't think there's a stature of limitation on making a wish, at least I hope not?
I don't advertize this to the competition but I have an edge. The further down you wrap your pinky around the bone the more chance it will break in your favour. It's not cheating, it's knowledge gained from years of experience. I was a clever kid, I liked to figure things out and because turns came around slowly when sharing with five household members, you had to get it right on your turn or wait for one to two years to make that wish come true. Justifiably, all's fair in love and wishbone breaking.
The picture is Shane and I doing a pretend hold in the way I was taught by my parents. I looked online to find a good photo and discovered that my family held the bones a bit differently for the procedure. Most hold it with the V up and use the pointer and thumb to hold the end. We always held it with the V part down with our baby finger wrapped around the bone. It's a weaker digit so you have to tug more to get it to break.
If you are curious like me, you might be asking where this wishbone cracking custom came from? It all started with the Romans who pulled apart chicken clavicles hoping for good fortune. As far as historians can tell, they were really into their chickens, and believed that the birds were oracles that could predict the future. They exploited the chickens' supposed gifts by turning them into walking Ouija boards with a bizarre ritual known as "rooster divination" They would draw a circle on the ground and divide it into wedges representing the letters of the alphabet. Bits of food were scattered on each wedge and a chicken was placed in the center of the circle. As the bird snacked, scribes would note the sequence of the letters that the bird pecked at, and the local priests would use the resulting messages to divine the future and answer the city's most pressing questions.
When a chicken was killed, the furcula was laid out in the sun to dry so that it could be preserved so people would still have access to the oracle's power even after eating it. People would pick up the bone, stroke it, and make two wishes on it, hence it's modern name. The practice made it to England in the 16th century with it was referred to as a "merrythought." Of course it was only a matter of time before it came to the New World with English settlers, who began using turkey bones as well as the chickens. The term wishbone didn't emerge until the med-1800's around the time President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. What hasn't changed is the rules. Each person grabs an end and gives a yank. If you get the bigger piece, your wish will be granted.
Is this still a tradition in your family?
"When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time and feed it and so on for the following Thanksgiving. But by the time Thanksgiving came around, we sort of thought of the turkey as a pet, so we ate the dog. Only kidding. It was the cat!"
David Letterman
Sunday I had a fit of conscience and decided to get down and dirty with cleaning my house. I was dusting around the orchids on the windowsill and found the bone from the Christmas turkey. Hubby is coming home in about a week, which is the reason for the clean, and we'll break it then. I don't think there's a stature of limitation on making a wish, at least I hope not?
I don't advertize this to the competition but I have an edge. The further down you wrap your pinky around the bone the more chance it will break in your favour. It's not cheating, it's knowledge gained from years of experience. I was a clever kid, I liked to figure things out and because turns came around slowly when sharing with five household members, you had to get it right on your turn or wait for one to two years to make that wish come true. Justifiably, all's fair in love and wishbone breaking.
The picture is Shane and I doing a pretend hold in the way I was taught by my parents. I looked online to find a good photo and discovered that my family held the bones a bit differently for the procedure. Most hold it with the V up and use the pointer and thumb to hold the end. We always held it with the V part down with our baby finger wrapped around the bone. It's a weaker digit so you have to tug more to get it to break.
If you are curious like me, you might be asking where this wishbone cracking custom came from? It all started with the Romans who pulled apart chicken clavicles hoping for good fortune. As far as historians can tell, they were really into their chickens, and believed that the birds were oracles that could predict the future. They exploited the chickens' supposed gifts by turning them into walking Ouija boards with a bizarre ritual known as "rooster divination" They would draw a circle on the ground and divide it into wedges representing the letters of the alphabet. Bits of food were scattered on each wedge and a chicken was placed in the center of the circle. As the bird snacked, scribes would note the sequence of the letters that the bird pecked at, and the local priests would use the resulting messages to divine the future and answer the city's most pressing questions.
When a chicken was killed, the furcula was laid out in the sun to dry so that it could be preserved so people would still have access to the oracle's power even after eating it. People would pick up the bone, stroke it, and make two wishes on it, hence it's modern name. The practice made it to England in the 16th century with it was referred to as a "merrythought." Of course it was only a matter of time before it came to the New World with English settlers, who began using turkey bones as well as the chickens. The term wishbone didn't emerge until the med-1800's around the time President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. What hasn't changed is the rules. Each person grabs an end and gives a yank. If you get the bigger piece, your wish will be granted.
Is this still a tradition in your family?
"When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time and feed it and so on for the following Thanksgiving. But by the time Thanksgiving came around, we sort of thought of the turkey as a pet, so we ate the dog. Only kidding. It was the cat!"
David Letterman
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