Of Touching Wood!

 Here I was, talking to myself (as one does), when I realised that both British and French have a common superstition in common: touching wood. Obviously, that got me thinking. Where, how, why?

This article is sweet and short, I promise!

As any folklore tradition, the exact origin is hard to pinpoint, might predate written history and evolves throughout the ages. However, what “tickles” me is how widespread that particular tradition seems to be.

My starting point was my faithful and reliable Wikipedia which indicated that knocking on wood is an apotropaic tradition.

Yes, I scratched my head at that word! Allow me a little detour.

Apotropaic magic is a type of magic intended to deflect misfortune or avert the evil eye. Alright, I am tracking, this is a fancy word for superstition. The question now is, what is superstition?

A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, often, but not exclusively, applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, fate, magic, amulets, astrology, fortune telling, spirits, and so on.

Interestingly enough, in 1520, Martin Luther called the papacy "that fountain and source of all superstitions"; Diderot, in his 18th-century Encyclopédie defines superstition as "any excess of religion in general", and links it specifically with paganism (refer to this article).

So, bottom line, superstition is in the eye of the beholder! I would postulate that pointing the finger at somebody’s beliefs and labelling them as superstitions could be interpreted as being terribly judgemental and bordering on intolerance in some instances. Obviously, that is just a theory… what do I know, right?

I digressed, so let’s go back to knocking on wood!

The phrase comes in different forms, knocking on wood, touching wood, touch wood and so on, and reflects the tradition of doing so to avoid tempting fate, keeping the evil eye away or bringing luck.

But where does it come from? Do you know the phrase “all roads lead to Rome”? Well, apparently it is the same for “knock on wood”!

Many ancient cultures revered trees, whether as sacred symbols, for their medicinal properties, or as a gateway to spirits and gods alike, from the Druids with their oaks, to the Scandinavians with their ash, the Siberians with their birch, and the Chinese with their peach tree.

With the rise of Christianity came the belief that touching the true cross would ward off evil and ensure safety and protection, particularly in the Middle Ages when there was a roaring trade in relics and the parts of said cross.

A friend of mine also heard that touching wood was linked to Jesus and his occupation as a carpenter.

Another theory links the phrase to the persecution of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, when the community developed a secret system of coded knocks to allow access to people seeking sanctuary in wooden built synagogues.

Others argue that touching wood comes from superstitious sailors, who knocked on the decks of their ships for luck against heavy seas. Or perhaps the knocking was done in the name of health and safety, as miners knocked on the supportive rafters inside their mines to ensure they weren’t rotten.

To be fair, none of those explanations necessarily exclude one another. The exact origin remains a mystery… apart from the fact that overall it looks like trees were associated with magic in many cultures (maybe something to keep in mind as we keep cutting more and more trees to make room for more and more humans? Just saying, not judging!).

Now, for some international use of the phrase, in Spain (tocar madera) or France (“toucher du bois”), “to touch wood”, is used to bring luck or a good situation. In Lebanon and Syria, “duqq ‘al-khashab” ("knock on [the] wood") is used when hearing someone say something negative, in order to prevent it from happening. In Iran, “bezan-am be taxteh, cheshm naxoreh” ("[I] am knocking on wood to prevent [them]/it from being jinxed") is used to prevent a bad situation to happen and warding off evil spirits. Finally in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, when someone is saying bad things, the one that hears it would knock on wood (or other suitable surface) and knock on their forehead while saying “amit-amit or amit-amit jabang bayi” (Indonesia), “choi or tak cun tak cun” (Malaysia).

So, questions and food for thoughts for us all:

• Do you touch wood for luck, to ward off the evil eye or both?

• Do you knock on your own head when there is no wood nearby?

• Would you stop doing it because it is a superstition in your own culture?

• How come that practice is so widespread and is found through so many different cultures? What does this mean about its origin?

Philosophy, anthropology, nonsense, spirituality, magic… whatever meaning or rational you give it is fine. To each its own!

Personally? I am not superstitious, but I will keep knocking on wood. 😊 

Sources

• https://folklorethursday.com/folklife/the-origins-of-touch-wood-tree-spirits-the-true-cross-or-tag/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocking_on_wood

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotropaic_magic

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norns

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_sacred_trees