Why is a wishbone on a chicken called a wishbone?

Question

Is there some reason? Some tradition maybe? My 13 year old daughter asked me the other day and I couldn't give her an answer.

I know what the routine is but not the reasons behind it.

What started the whole thing? Did someone just one day say Hey, lets break this and whoever gets the bigger bit can waste their breath wishing for cr*p?

Answer 1

cos the chicken wished it was still alive & had it ? lol

Answer 2

Wishbone Chicken

Answer 3

The wishbone is the third member of the great Euro-American lucky charm triumvirate -- the other two being the horseshoe and the four-leaf clover. Sometimes called the "merrythought" in the British Isles, the wishbone is a bone overlying the breastbone of fowl, but most especially the chicken and the turkey. It is the custom to save this bone intact when carving the bird at dinner and to dry it over the stove or by the fire (or, sometimes, to dry it for three days in the air, three being a fortuitous magical number) until it is brittle.


Once the merrythought is dry, it is given to two people (usually children), who pull it apart until it cracks and breaks, each one making a wish while doing so. The person who gets the "long half" of the wishbone will have his or her wish "come true." If the wishbone breaks evenly, both parties get their wishes. In some families it is said that the wish will only come true if it is not revelaed to anyone. (The belief that a wish must be kept secret to ensure its fulfillment also occurs in "first star" and birthday candle wishing rituals).

In its intact form, the wishbone itself does not confer good luck, but it holds the promise of luck to the one who gets the longer half. Because of its association with conviviality and festive dinners, the wishbone has a long history of use in holiday cards. This postcard, dating from the postcard mania period of 1906-1918, is one of many in my collection that shows a merrythought with holly as a Christmas or New Year party amulet. The wishbone is found on numerous Good Luck postcards of the era.

In the 1930s, the wishbone was a common image on North American good luck coins and one could even buy little gold or silver wishbone charms; but by the 1990s it, like that other "dead animal part," the rabbit foot, had fallen out of favour with the makers of lucky amulets.

Answer 4

The wishbone, known in anatomy as the furcula, is a sternum bone found in birds which is shaped like the letter Y. It is used as an attachment point for the wing muscles. It is so named because of a tradition: Two people pull on each side of such a bone, and when it breaks, the one who gets the larger part is said to have a wish granted.

Answer 5

It started at the very first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims gave the Indians some firewater and after they were PRETTY DARN tipsy, they tried to learn the names of some of the parts of a turkey.

Well, as you can imagine, it is difficult enough to learn a new language, but try learning it when you are drunk.

I believe the Chief wanted to say breastbone, but drunk...he said brishbone and over the years it changed to wishbone, cuz it was that bone that people used to make wishes.

Answer 6

I hope this helps:

The custom of snapping the turkey's wishbone (the forked bone in front of the breastbone) goes back to ancient Roman times, making it a tradition long before the Pilgrims came to America.

Those ancient Romans were something else so who really knows why they did what they did?

Answer 7

Hold one side of the bone and have someone hold the other side and make a secret wish. Now you count to three then pull it apart and who ever gets the large piece after it breaks will have their wish come true.

Works better if you let it dry out some first though.

Answer 8

It's called the wishbone...........because after it's dried.. 2 people each hold and end.... and make a wish..........and pull on it....and whoever gets the biggest piece, their wish comes true. That's the only reason it's called that.

Answer 9

Because every body calls a wishbone on a chicken : Wishbone! I think God ,too

Answer 10

Old family traditions.... would let it dry out and two people would make a wish on it. Which ever got the largest portion would win their wish

Answer 11

Probably some tradition, but it's a dirty bone tho! It can't make your wish come true, only you can do that!