To Touch Wood
It is a pessimistic part of human nature to believe that to talk about our hopes and dreams is to jinx them- either because some malicious evil entity is lurking- or just from our overconfidence. So, some countermeasure is required, to deflect the evil or ground our own belief in ourselves. Once such method is to say ‘touch wood’ or ‘knock on wood.’ Both are common ways of ensuring luck for plans and diverting ill fortune, still used in the UK, Europe and America today.
Some people believe the superstition of touching wood dates to the time of Christ’s death. The execution of the son of the Christian god supposedly imbued the wood of his cross with miraculous powers against evil. Christian’s believed that in lew of a piece of the true cross, this effect could be replicated on any piece of wood if it was done in Christ’s name. However, in reality, the sacred nature of wood is yet another superstition deeply embedded in our prehistoric past.
The tradition of touching wood dates from a time when trees were thought to be the home of gods or benevolent spirits and to touch one and call on its spirit helped ward off evil. Certain trees, such as oak, ash, elder, and hawthorn were particularly potent. The ancient Greeks would touch an oak tree to call upon Zeus for protection, and the hawthorn in the UK still retains the reputation of being a fairy tree.
This tradition of touching and knocking on wood has its echo across Europe- and beyond, including a 4000-year-old North America tradition. Very much like the Greeks, some Native American tribes believed that oak trees were the dwelling place of the sky god. They also believed that to boast of a hoped-for accomplishment or victory was to court bad luck. So, if anyone was stupid enough to tempt fate in this way, they knocked on the base of an oak tree, as a way of asking the sky god’s forgiveness and for a reprieve from ill fortune.
According to European custom, dense areas of woodland were the best places to ask for the help of tree spirits as they were theoretically free of people and evil influences- both of whom could overhear wished made in a more public place. However, according to Old English folklore, knocking on wood gave the petitioner an extra degree of privacy by creating a bit of noise to mask their request- or, as others believe of waking up or thanking the spirits.
Other superstitions from the past still apply to our modern wedding customs