The ‘wishbone game’ has been played for many centuries. We are usually introduced to this game around Thanksgiving time when after the turkey is eaten, we are left with the skeletal remains of the bird. One of these bones within the turkey is called the furcula bone. This bone is located between the neck and the breast of the bird, supporting the body in a two pronged fork shape. This bone is usually removed prior to the feast, set out and dried for a 3 day period. Once the bone is presented, we are then told to hold one of the brittle prongs, while someone else holds onto the other half. The bone is then broken between the two individuals and whoever has the larger half, is granted one wish.

Wishbone Tattoo Meaning

Although we see this as a fun game to play with family around the dinner table, when this idea was first conceived, it was not a game to the ones playing it at all. The Etruscans were a wealthy civilization of people in ancient Italy. It was this civilization that began the widespread of the idea of the ‘wishbone’. Birds have always been a symbol of good fortune and a means of looking into the future. In the ancient times, many people held true to the magic of the world around them, not knowing much about the world as we do today. The Etruscans believed in the tellings of the bird, once they killed a bird for a meal, they would take out and save the furcula bone within the creature. Because this bone is structured to enable the bird to take flight, the ancient Etruscans believed this bone had a sort of mythical power within it. Unlike how we make our ‘wishes’ today with the bone, the Etruscans did not break the bone in half. They found that the bone was much more powerful to them when the bone was taken from the remains and let out to dry. Instead of breaking the bone in half, they would rub their hands over and stroke the bone, much like the famous genie in a bottle concept. As they would stroke the bone, they made a wish that would not only benefit themselves, but the wish would benefit all of the Etruscans as well.