Why do we Knock on Wood?
Have you ever knocked on wood for good luck? Or maybe you’ve said something that someone responded to with, “knock on wood”. Have you ever wondered why exactly we’re knocking on wood and what it has to do with luck? Don’t worry, Astonishing Legends has your back.
Like any good superstition and folklore, there are a few varying explanations that depend on who (and when) you ask. One of the most common explanations is the connection between wood and life. From the druids all the way back to Ancient Greece (and a million places in between) trees has always been an integral part of folklore and magic. Some Indo-European folklore even believed that certain spirits and fae folk lived within certain trees. Thus, when you ‘knocked’ on them, you invoked the attention and protection of the spirit. So, if you wanted something good to happen or needed some extra luck...you’d knock on a tree.
Wood being good luck isn’t uncommon - so knocking on them, in a way, makes sense. If the smoke from trees like palo santo, cedar, and myrrh are said to have powerful, even magical benefits, wouldn’t interacting physically with trees in any way carry a similar outcome?
In a slightly different take on the importance of wood, some cultures believed that bad fortune could be brought upon by malingering spirits. As a way of acknowledging the spirits and ‘scaring’ them off, you’d loudly knock on wood. This would drive them away (and the bad luck they brought). This is quite common, as loud noises and light were often used to scare off unsavory spirits.
Others believed that people, like the druids, paid hommage to trees and worshipped them. Touching them and knocking on wood is a way to acknowledge their power and request more (although specifically knocking or tapping isn’t really mentioned in what I could find of these rituals).
History.com brings up another interesting theory. Separate from folklore (but nonetheless fun) is an explanation that comes from the 19th century. There was a wildly popular game called “Tiggy Touchwood”, which was essentially like tag. However, if you touched a piece of wood you were unable to be tagged ‘it’. So, the importance to ‘touch wood’ links to the immunity from a game of tag.
Do you have any theories not mentioned, or perhaps a theory of your own? Write them below!