....feel free to give your tips, suggestions or your own personal interpretations of "keep your fingers crossed/fingers crossed" - be it positive, negative or just plain weird!!!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
....feel free to give your tips, suggestions or your own personal interpretations of "keep your fingers crossed/fingers crossed" - be it positive, negative or just plain weird!!!
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CROSSING FINGERS
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Western Europe
If you cross your fingers when making a wish, or if you tell a friend, "Keep your fingers crossed," you're partaking of an ancient custom that originally required the participation of two people, intersecting index fingers.
The popular gesture grew out of the pagan belief that a cross was a symbol of perfect unity; and that its point of intersection marked the dwelling place of beneficent spirits. A wish made on a cross was supposed to be anchored steadfastly at the cross's intersection until that desire was realized. The superstition was popular among many early European cultures.
Originally, in crossing fingers for good luck, the index finger of a well wisher was placed over the index finger of the person expressing the wish, the two fingers forming a cross. While one person wished, the other offered mental support to expedite the desire. As time passed, the rigors of the custom eased and a person could wish without the assistance of an associate. It sufficed merely to cross the index and the middle fingers to form an X, the Scottish cross of St. Andrew.
Over time the ancient custom of the "crossed fingers" of friends degenerated to a wisher crossing his own fingers and finally to today's expression "I'll keep my fingers crossed," with the well wisher never actually doing so, and no one expecting him or her to. What was once deliberate and symbolic has become reflexive and insignificant—though not obsolete.
lol, you kinda put a glitch in my blogging system :) but thank you for adding this info!
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