Why do we break a wishbone and wish?

Have you ever had the experience of having a wishbone on your plate at the end of a chicken meal? ...well, you are the lucky one!

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The popular custom of snapping chicken wishbones goes back to ancient times. Back in the 4th century B.C. the Etruscans of central Italy sacrificed an animal, a fowl, in calling upon one of their Gods who would foretell future events or solve grave problems. The forked bone from the bird's breast (the furcula) was dried in the Sun, later, two people broke it and the one who got the larger piece of the broken bone made a wish. This custom was then adopted by Romans, later spread to many parts of Europe.
There are two reasons given why the ancient chose the furcula, and not a rib or wing.

• one says that the bone resembles the human crotch, which is symbolic of life
• another says that the wishbone resembles a good-luck symbol, a horseshoe

We are doing now what was done before, using a chicken wishbone. The one who got the larger part of the bone makes a wish and in the best tradition of fairy tales , it says that the wish will come true.
Now finish your meal and grab that wishbone. Find a partner. Pull and make a wish!

Source: Reader's Digest Why In The World.