We all know the story of Thanksgiving (I hope) but how about the history of the wishbone?
Supposedly the wishbone custom began with the Etruscans who believed that both the hen and the cock were "soothsayers" (fortune tellers). The hen
because her squawk foretold the laying of an egg; the cock because his
crow heralded the dawn of a new day.
The
bird's collarbone was laid in the sun to dry when a sacred bird was killed. An Etruscan wishing to
benefit from the powers of the oracle would pick up the bone and stroke
(not break) it while making a wish; hence the name "wishbone."
It was
the Romans who brought the wishbone superstition North to England. Somewhere in there the breaking
of the dried clavicle of a chicken became the thing to do, and became an established
tradition by the time the Pilgrims reached the New World.
Wild turkeys populated the northeastern shores of
America and have clavicles similar to those of chickens, so the Pilgrims
adapted the wishbone custom to the turkey, making it part of
Thanksgiving festivities. Thus, making an ancient Etruscan superstition a part of an American celebration.
