Fingers crossed origin: younger than the legend
Crossing your fingers for luck is much younger than most people think. The story you usually hear is that early Christians, persecuted in classical times, secretly crossed their fingers to make the sign of the cross. Folklorists reject it. The earliest written record of the gesture that the leading English folklore researchers could find dates from 1912.
What the folklorists found
A Dictionary of English Folklore, published by Oxford University Press, calls crossing the middle finger over the index finger “one of our most well-understood gestures”. It is made “for luck”, or to ward off bad luck, for example after walking under a ladder. People often just say it instead of doing it: “I’ll cross my fingers for you.”
Given how common the gesture is, the dictionary finds its paper trail “surprising”. The folklorists Opie and Tatem, whose 1989 work the dictionary cites, could find no reference to it earlier than 1912. That first record already links the gesture to the ladder superstition.
Добавить в заметки чтобы посмотреть позже?Not as widespread as it seems
The gesture is also less universal than English speakers assume. The Oxford dictionary cites a 1979 study of gestures by the writer Morris, which shows that crossed fingers are understood by some people on mainland Europe but are “only commonly found in Britain and parts of Scandinavia.”
An ancient gesture handed down from classical times would be expected to turn up across Europe, and in writing long before the 20th century.
The Christian story
That is exactly the problem the dictionary has with the popular origin story. Its verdict is unusually blunt: “Given its late appearance, restricted distribution, and the fact that crossed fingers bear no relation to the shape of a cross, the explanation is completely unfounded.”
The last point is worth checking for yourself. Cross your middle finger over your index finger and look at it. The fingers twist around each other. They do not form a cross with four arms.
Crossed fingers in the playground
There is one place, the dictionary notes, where crossed fingers are still taken seriously: the school playground. There children cross their fingers along with a “truce term”, a special word that claims a moment’s safety from being caught in a game.
That fits another familiar use, which the folklore site #FolkloreThursday lists alongside luck: crossing your fingers to cover a little white lie, as if it cancels the promise. In each case the gesture means the same thing. It is a little private protection, against bad luck, against being caught, or against your own words.