A photo from open sources
Not even superstitious people when they talk about something. good, no, no, and knock on wood – so as not to frighten good luck. Where did this tradition come from?
Long before the rise of Christianity and Islam, pagans in all over the world – from Britain to India – bowed to the trees, to which they attributed various mythical properties. Alone used them as oracles, others used one way or another them in the performance of religious rites, the third, like the ancient Celts, considered them the home of certain spirits or gods.
Researchers Stefan Bechtel and Deborah Aaronson are convinced that the tradition of knocking on wood today is associated with pagan the belief that a spirit lives in him.
The first version is that once the Europeans drove away the sound of evil spirits so that they do not overhear their innermost conversations and wouldn’t ruin envy.
According to the second version, the worshipers touched the tree so that ask for something living inside god, or there was a knock expression of gratitude to the wood spirit for the “performance” of some requests. Over the centuries, the religious component has been forgotten, but the association between knocking on wood and luck turned out to be tenacious.
“In any case, in such a simple way a man tried to protect yourself from envy and anger – Bethel writes in his “Book good luck. “- From the envy of evil spirits or the wrath of the gods towards too arrogant mortals who attribute luck to themselves or forget to thank yourself for the mercy shown to them. ”
