Ever wonder why we break the turkey wishbone at Thanksgiving?
A co-worker posed this question to me a while back and asked if I would look into it.
Honestly, I had no idea where or how this tradition began, so I was surprised when I discovered it was the Italians who first went looking for a lucky break.
The legend of the wishbone begins with the Etruscans, an ancient Italian civilization, and it also begins with the chicken, not the turkey.
The Etruscans believed that chickens were soothsayers that possessed the power to predict the future. They would place kernels of corn around a circle to represent the letters of their alphabet, and then select a hen and place her in the center of the circle.
As legend has it, they would watch which kernels the chicken ate, and in which order, and use the information as a predictor of future events.
The hen, after performing her visionary duties, would then be rewarded by being offered as a sacrifice, cooked and eaten. Her collarbone, which we know as the wishbone, was saved and the Etruscans would take turns stroking it for good luck or to make a wish on.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this practice could turn into a fight over the bone, which is how the tradition of breaking the bone was born. The person who got the bigger half got the “lucky break.”
Eventually, lore tells us, the tradition was adopted by Rome, and over the centuries spread to England, from where the pilgrims brought the tradition to America. The only problem was, when they got here they found more turkeys than chickens, so the custom was adapted to the turkey collarbone.
The battle for the wishbone’s bigger half is an after-dinner Thanksgiving tradition for many families. Some folks like to allow the bone to dry out for a while before the competition, and will save it for Christmas or even Easter dinner so that it is more brittle and snaps better. Most, however, can’t wait that long to see who gets the luck, and hold the bone-snapping competition after dinner.
Other traditions hold that families with an unmarried daughter place the bone over the front doorway as good luck in finding her a husband. The next single man to pass though the door and under the wishbone was the candidate.
That could be a lucky break. Or not.
Whichever way your wishbone breaks Thursday, here’s wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving, and lots of luck for the holiday season.
Lisa Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or at labraham@thebeaconjournal.com. Find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @akronfoodie or visit my blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/lisa.