Why We Break Wishbones: An Ancient Chicken-Worshipping Civilization

EtruscansThey populated central Italy.From the 8th to the 3rd centuries BCE, Etruscans highly influenced later Italian civilization. These people practiced polytheism, believing in natural spirits and omens, often figuring out these signs through augury. Etruscan augury meant watching birds and weather for signs and answers.They also practiced haruspicy.This involved assessing animal entrails for the same purposes.

One type of augurycalled alectromancy.This focused on chickens, which the Etruscans held in high regard and saw as divine. Etruscans asked questions and watched the chickens.They watched the chickens' feeding patterns.They used these observations to find answers. After killing a chicken, they dried and preserved its bones to keep its divinity.

Etruscans used chickens for guidance. They had the chickens spell out names and words. They drew a circle, splitting it into sections, each marked with a letter of the alphabet. They placed food on each letter. When the chickens ate, the food pieces they chose from the letters spelled the answer to the diviner's question.

The diviner running the ritual asked how the chicken knew the question.The diviner chopped off the chickens' claws.The diviner fed the claws back to the animal along with a lambskin scroll written with the inquiry.

When Romans interacted with the Etruscans during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, they picked up alectromancy.Etruria, north of Rome and the Tiber River, became part of the Roman world by the 2nd century BCE.

Romans expanded the Etruscan augury by using chickens for alectromancy in different ways. Romans fed chickens before battle to check their appetites. Good eating meant a good omen, but lack of interest meant bad luck. The Romans could stack the deck in their favor.However, when they needed favorable divination, the Romans caged the chickens without food for a time. Then, the priests opened the cage and threw their feed at them.

Roman navy commander Publius Claudius Pulcher once used alectromancy before a battle. The chickens did not eat, so they did not give him the answer he sought. The Roman military carried chickens; Publius used them during the First Punic War to check if he would win an upcoming fight. The birds would not eat.This was a bad sign. He said, "Since they do not want to eat, let them drink!" and ordered them thrown into the sea.

The naval battle followed, resulting in the near destruction of the Roman fleet. A humiliated Pulcher returned to Rome after the disastrous fight, where he faced trial for impiety. Records are unclear; Pulcher was either convicted and exiled or acquitted when the hearing was postponed because of rain. Regardless of the result, Pulcher died soon after.

Gaius Hostilius Mancinus wanted to consult his chickens.He consulted his chickens.Before fighting the Numantines in the second century BCE, Gaius Hostilius Mancinus could not find his chickens. They apparently fled into the woods. Mancinus lost the battle and accepted a humiliating peace treaty.

A magician used alectromancy to divine Emperor Valens' successor in 378 CE, and the chicken revealed only four letters.The chicken revealed only four letters."T H E O." The prediction's vagueness—it could mean Theodosius, Theodorus, Theodotus, etc.—made Valens kill people whose names began with "Theo." The magician later killed himself.

After a chicken was killed, the wishbone—known as the furcula—or "little fork"—people removed and dried the bone in the sun. Keeping the bone meant Etruscans and Romans could keep the bird's divinity. After drying the bone, people rubbed it for good fortune.and made wishes.They made wishes.

One account states the number of people wanting to rub chicken bones in the Roman Republic soon beat the number of actual furcula. Thus, Romans started breaking the bones into pieces. Another story says the large number of people rubbing furculae meant too many wishes, so breaking the bones let only one person get their wish granted.Many people wanted to rub chicken bones.The number of people wanting to rub chicken bones in the Roman Republic soon outnumbered the actual furcula. Romans broke the bones into pieces because of this. Another tale claims the high volume of people rubbing furculae caused too many wishes, so breaking the bones let only one person get their wish granted.One person could have their wish granted.When a wishbone broke, the person with the larger piece won.

Johannes Hartlieb, physician to Duke Louis VII of Bavaria, first referenced divination by a furcula in what seems like the first mention. He wrote in 1455.He wrote in 1455.After eating a goose on St. Martin's Day, tradition held that "the most sagacious keeps the breast-bone and lets it dry until morning. They examine it all around, in front, behind, and in the middle. This way, they guess if winter will be harsh or mild, dry or wet, and they wager their goods on the prediction."

The Romans passed the bone-breaking tradition to Britain, where people began breaking the furculae.People broke the furculae.This practice became known as "merrythought." As early as the 16th century, the wishbone was called "merie thought."The wishbone was called "merie thought."This name later linked to marriage. Starting in the 20th century, merrythought refers to the playful custom where two people pull the furcula of a fowl until it breaks. Like the wishbone custom, the person with the longer piece gets their wish. In a game variation, they also get married sooner.

Some accounts say the person with the smaller piece got a second chance.The person with the smaller piece got a second chance.The person who pulled the larger part of the wishbone closed their hand around the small part and made the loser choose the hand the piece was in. If the loser guessed the correct hand, their wish was granted too.

When the British sailed to the New World in the 17th century, they brought the practice of breaking wishbones.Brits expanded the types of bird bones.English settlers used geese and ducks for the wishbone-breaking tradition. Upon arriving in the Colonies, they began using wild turkeys. North America offered plenty of wild turkeys. This switch to a different bird formed the modern American tradition of breaking a wishbone on Thanksgiving.

The furculaThe furcula fuses a bird's clavicle and sternum. This bone lets a bird fly. Some theories suggest the furcula...furculaThe furcula is called the wishbone. It has divining powers because it resembles female genitalia.it resembles female genitaliaSeventeenth-century British folklore described breaking a wishbone.breaking a wishboneas follows:

“‘Tis common for two to break the Merrythought of a chicken-hen, or wood-cock, &c., the Anatomists call it the Clavicula; ’tis called the merrythought, because when the fowl is opened, dissected, or carved, it resembles the pudenda of a woman.”

Ancient people thought wishbones brought luck; this idea remains in their lore. You must dry the bone enough.dried sufficientlyThis drying takes about three days. If a bone lacks this drying, it may only bend.may only bendBoth ancient diviners and modern wishmakers agree: give the bone time to dry to keep its magic.