Cross Your Fingers Questions

Suzi Q answers:

It was used a long time ago as a gesture to warn off witches and anyone else who was possessed by demons or evil spirits. It was thought that any negativity would be trapped at the point where the two fingers meet.

Yes, it is thought to be bad luck to cross your fingers with both hands. Sorry, but I don’t know the reason why it is considered unlucky.

Suzi Q answers:

Hell yah.. Lol

Suzi Q answers:

The boogie man made it up
its all his fault
and he also made up step on a crack and break your mothers back

Suzi Q answers:

I do , yes…
And sometimes my toes, but that hurts a little so i stick to the finger crossing instead 🙂

Suzi Q answers:

For hope one hand for luck both

Suzi Q answers:

It’s like making the sign of the cross. Like a manual prayer.

Suzi Q answers:

I found the answer for you on Wikipedia.
It dates back to when crossed fingers were used to ward off witches and evil.

There are several different stories on how it all began so I posted a link that will tell you about all of them.

Suzi Q answers:

Crossing the first two fingers is a good luck sign recognised around the world. It is, however, not so common in Buddhist and Muslim cultures, suggesting that the symbol’s origin is Christian and was imported to Asian countries along with other Western ideas, food, fashion, technology, karaoke (no, wait a minute…).

We have no reliable evidence to support this, but one theory goes that during the various times when Christianity was illegal, the crossing of fingers was a secret sign for Christians to recognise each other. Yet whilst the Sign of the Cross has evolved into a good luck symbol and retained its Christian meaning, Fingers Crossed has lost any Christian connection.

This change of emphasis may have begun during the so-called ‘Hundred Years War’ between France and England (1337-1457). An archer would cross his first and second fingers, pray or wish for luck, and then draw back his longbow string with those same fingers.

Another theory suggests that the sign pre-dates Christianity, when it was believed that benign spirits dwelt at the intersecting point of the cross, as in the Solar Cross. In Europe, the sign was made by two people; the first to make the wish and the second to support it. Linking their fingers firmly would squeeze and energize the spirits into beneficial action.

In China, crossing the index and middle fingers is the sign for the number ten, which happens to coincide with the Chinese and Japanese written character for ten, which is . (The origin of this character is usually, yet erroneously, explained as two lines crossing to symbolise the four main directions, which in turn expressed the concept of completeness and by association all the fingers, i.e. Ten. However, this seems a confused version of its actual origin. It derives from a depiction of a sewing needle with thread passing through the eye, and was used as a substitute for the more complex character , meaning ‘hands together’, i.e. Ten fingers.)

The Roman numeral for ten (decem) is X, so it’s no surprise that when deaf people communicate in sign language, crossed fingers spell the alphabet letter X. But what is interesting is that the crossed fingers spell the sign for X only in Swedish sign (Svenska Handalfabetet). In other alphabets, the sign spells the letter R in English, Я (ya) in Russian (Cyrillic), (ra) in Japanese (hiragana), and the first half of (ss) in Korean (Hangul).

Suzi Q answers:

Http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20021017.html use this website to find out more about the superstitions. If you have any other questions go to http://ask.yahoo.com