Can anyone tell me why horseshoes are lucky.?

Question

Some people use to fix them on their front doors for good luck if they were the right way up.

Answer 1

it's not so much the horse shoe but the material it's made from. They used to be made with iron and iron is a lucky metal in folklore and mythology.

Answer 2

They are made of iron, the ancient peoples believed iron to be the bane of certain evil faeries and daemons. A horse-shoe symbolised both the end of a journey and protection from evil powers and as such was placed in a house to keep out evil spirits and to make sure journeys home were successful.
These days people do not usually believe in the powers of iron but still find horseshoes to bring luck because they still symbolise a journey. Often a silver horse-shoe is given to an 18 or 21 year old who has passed through the "journey" of childhood, or to a newly wedded couple to symbolise the journey they are about to make together through life.
It is nice to think of ancient traditions continuing in some form even to this day. So a horse-shoe is lucky because people think it represents something good, and if someone gives you one as a gift then you are lucky - you have a great friend and this is the real luck in life.

Answer 3

Stone Age (mesolithic) and Iron Age people in Europe and Asia worshippped the "Horse Goddess.'

This Horse Goddess has many names, Brigid, Epona, Rhiannon, Mari Lloyd, etc. Even stories about the Virgin Mary show her entering Bethlehem on the back of a horse with the Christ Child.

Lady Godiva is a other fable based upon a myth of the Germanic Horse Goddess.

Needless to say, symbols of this Goddess (linked to agricultural fertiliy and animal husbandry) like the horse shoe became 'good luck charms' for peasants who converted to Christianity, but at home, continued to worship the Goddess.

Rural games which reminded country folk of the older religion of hte Goddess were discouraged by the church, but were never completely wiped out. Most farmers were wiser than some silly urban priests from Rome or Avignon.

Horse worship in Britain continues today in America, where we refuse to eat horsemeat. This is not a rational idea, but a deep-seated emotional reaction based upon a social taboo -- in other words, 'Don't eat the Goddess!'

Answer 4

They are considered lucky because they are U shaped. If you hang them above your door with the "feet" pointing up, your home will be filled with luck. If it turns upside down your luck will spill out. I don't know the origin of this but it is prominant in the American West.

Answer 5

The western custom is to place it with the shoe rightside up so which you will seize sturdy success and carry it in a contanior. even although considering you have 2 place them section by section (one up the different upsidedown) with the ends touching this could create a circulate which will surrond the abode with sturdy success and shop evil spirits out. from the womens encyclopdia of myths and secrets and techniques by walker. Hindus arabs, and Celts recognized the yonic shape of the horseshoe as a logo of the Goddess's"Greate Gate," as a result it exchange into continually esteemed as a prophylactic door attraction. Druidic temples have been built interior the form of a horseshoe. So have been some Hindu temples, with the frank purpose of representing the yoni. The horseshoe arch of Arabic sacred arhitecture progressed from a similar custom.Greeks assigned the yonic shape to the final letter of their sacred alphabet,Omega, actually, "great OM," the notice of advent begnning the subsequent cycle of fixing into. The implication of the horseshoe image exchange into that, having entered the yonic Doorat the top of existence(Omega), guy could be reborn as a sparkling baby(Alpha) in the process a similar Door. It exchange into everywhere represtented as "a horseshoe,the very determine it is nailed to lots of doorways in numerous partsof the international,as an logo of success. amazing few of people who stay in such residences be responsive to that the horseshoe is merely a logo of the yoni and that by nailing it to their doorways , they shop on with no custom older than the historic previous of their race."The Christian God who claimed to be the "Alpha and Omega"(Revelation a million:8) exchange into purely copying one version of this very historical symbolism, whos which potential seems to not have been understood by the biblical author. i think of that's sufficient to nonetheless throully confuse you approximately which thank you to cling the horseshoes. one way makes it look as though a uteris or a couldern. the different makes it look like the letter Omega.

Answer 6

Americans of English and Irish descent prefer to display horseshoes upward; those of German, Austrian, Italian, Spanish, and Balkan descent generally hang them downward.

People in some parts of Ireland and Britain believe that horseshoes must be turned upward or "the luck will run out." A Horseshoe 'Pointing up' will gather Your Luck, whereas 'Pointing down' it will shower You with Luck.

The power of the horseshoe has been recognized since before the birth of Christ. We know that horseshoes were actually used by the Greeks as early as the 4th century B.C. Since horses were believed to be one of the most sacred of animals, their crescent-shaped shoes became symbols of good luck.

Horseshoes are often nailed over the outside thresholds of houses and barns so that witches could not enter. Horseshoes are thought to protect and bring good luck.

The horseshoe is used as a protective talisman against not only the devil, but also against curses in general. And folklore claims that horseshoes can also protect one from malevolent faeries, since iron supposedly repels faeries - although it seems that this would keep away both good and evil faeries. Horseshoes are sometimes nailed over beds to ward off nightmares and prevent visits from incubi and succubi.

Horseshoes are a Symbol of Good Luck. It has associations with the strength and dependability of the horse, and, in upright position it is also symbolic of the moon. Pointing downwards, it is symbolic of the womb.

The horseshoe is also meant to protect one's house and land and to keep strangers away. To the Greeks it symbolized the crescent moon which was regarded as a symbol of fertility. The modern association is more likely to be linked to a legendary tenth century Saint who trapped the Devil in a Horseshoe and as a result made him promise never to enter a Christian home marked by a Horseshoe hung above the door.

Fishermen nail horseshoes to the masts of their boats to ensure lucky catches. And one of the most successful sailors of them all, Admiral Lord Nelson, had a horseshoe nailed to the mast of his flagship, H.M.S. Victory, when he took on the Spanish and French fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar. Whether it did any good is open to question. Lord Nelson was killed in the battle, but this fleet was victorious and the H.M.S. Victory was saved.

The Greeks and Romans nailed horseshoes to their walls to protect them from plagues. In the Middle Ages, horseshoes were often buried in the roots of an ash tree, which was considered among the luckiest of trees. It was believed that the branches of an ash growing around a horseshoe needed only to be waved over the backs of cattle to instantly cure them of any ill.

Answer 7

there's 2 meanings to the horse shoe, when it's pointing upwards it's ment to catch good luck and when it's pionting down it's meant to ward off witches and demons. Obviously one horse shoe can't be a charm for both.

Answer 8

Iron was considered part of the earth, and had links with mythology, it was probably the easiest and cheapest way for the masses to get their grubby claws on a piece of iron. it would 'keep the fairies away'.

Answer 9

hanging it up or down doesn't matter, as long as it's there.

as you know the devil has cloven hooves and wears horse shoes.
one day he found that they were giving him terrible pain, so he came up from hell to find a blacksmith. the smith he found re-shod him ( but, first the smith made him promise never to enter his house ).
and the devil was so relieved when the pain was gone that he thanked the smith and told him to hang his old shoes outside his workshop, saying that he would never enter a house marked in this way.

Answer 10

Apparently it may of orginated as a representation of the protective symbolism of the crescent moon which appear in Egyptian iconography and Islamic art