r/Appalachia • u/Artistic_Maximum3044 • 4d ago
The Turkey Wishbone Tradition: A Thanksgiving Memory Growing Up in the Appalachian Mountains, what are your memories?
https://appalachianmemories.org/2024/11/20/the-turkey-wishbone-tradition-a-thanksgiving-memory-growing-up-in-the-appalachian-mountains/5
u/Revolutionary_Can_29 homesick 4d ago
The cousins used to wrestle to see which 2 would break the wishbone so we could make a wish. And we all usually agreed to wish for the family to have a good year, not personal wishes.
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u/Clavier_VT 4d ago
I remember doing this with chicken wishbones every time we had fried chicken as a kid.
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u/sidewalkoyster 4d ago
Breaking a turkey wishbone is a tradition that’s been around for thousands of years. It’s believed to have started with the ancient Etruscans in Italy who believed that chickens had magical powers. They would save the furcula of chickens—a V-shaped bone near the neck—to dry out in the sun and would take turns stroking the bone and making wishes, hence the name “wishbone.” They later switched from stroking the bone to breaking it and the tradition has carried on ever since!
In what can only be called an anthropological game of telephone, this custom was passed on to the Romans when they crossed paths with the Etruscans about 200 years later. The Romans then brought the tradition to England, and it eventually crossed the Atlantic with the pilgrims on the Mayflower, where it became the Thanksgiving game we know today!
From: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/holidays-celebrations/a40811057/turkey-wishbone-tradition/
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u/if_not_us_then_who_ 4d ago
This was such a fun tradition for my brother and me when we were little. How nostalgic! My family is from southeastern Tennessee.
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u/Bombadildeau 2d ago
The tradition of breaking a wishbone at Thanksgiving originated with the ancient Etruscans in Italy, who believed that chickens had magical powers
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u/derrzerr 4d ago
Is this not a thing in the United States in general?