The theme for February Wicked Wednesdays is Wishing. I think we all make wishes when we blow out birthday candles (a tradition that may have gone the way of the dodo thanks to the pandemic). And we all know to wish upon a star. What other objects or situations does your family or friend group wish upon?
I’m giving away an Advance Reader Copy of Shucked Apart to one person who answers the same question below.
Edith/Maddie: Gosh, I’m not sure I have any others. No, wait. I think this came from my ex-husband’s family. When the car goes over a bump, if you are the first one to both touch the car ceiling and say, “Pudiddle,” you get to make a wish. Sorry, that’s all I got!
Jessie: I love this topic, Barb! I have lots of wishing traditions but one that I particularly like is to blow a wish into a a bottle once the contents are emptied. I always do it with seltzer bottles and wine bottles and especially bottles of champagne. I didn’t think anyone else did until I hosted a dinner party that included friends from Russia. They were surprised to see me do it and said it is something they did in their home country!
Liz: Barb, love this – and just like in the picture above, when I was a kid we had tons of dandelions that grew in my back yard. I used to think they were so pretty and bright even though everyone called them weeds. And when the flowers fell off and it dried up, if you blew the dried petals away, we used to make a wish.
Sherry: I’m not around many fountains these days, but we always used to wish when we threw a coin in a fountain. And there’s been a few times in my life when we’d wish on a wishbone.
Julie: I haven’t thought about this in a long time. We were dandelion blowers, and also buttercup believers (if someone held a buttercup under your chin and saw yellow you got your wish). Wishbone pullers. Coin tossers. I love the idea of wishing into an empty bottle. I still wish on a full moon.
Barb: I never heard of wishing on a full moon! Or Edith’s Pudiddle. We were wishing people too–wishbones carefully dried, dandelions, buttercups. We haven’t mentioned the one where if you lose an eyelash you put it on your finger and blow it away and get to make a wish.
Edith/Maddie: Chiming back in to say I wish I’d waited to contribute! Of course we wished on dandelions and coins and wishbones. I just couldn’t think of any of those on the spot. *forehead slap*
Readers: What about you? What wishing traditions does your family practice?
I don’t think we have any wishing traditions. Are we boring?
Not boring, but surprising!
Edith, we had pudiddle! Only ours was if you saw a car with only one headlight the first person to call pudiddle got a kiss. I thought it was just a Jersey thing!
We wished on wishbones, coins, dandelions, and first stars. If two people said the same thing at the same time they linked pinkies and each made a wish. Jessie, I’m adopting your bottle wish in the future. Bottles are such lovely containers for wishes!
Cool, Kait!
Anyone remember wishing on a star with, “Starlight, Starbright, First star I see tonight. Wish I may, Wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”
I do! I do!
We always wished on the first star we saw at night. Fountains and wish bones were other things we wished on. Jessie, love your idea of blowing wishes into bottles! Barb, can’t wait to read “Shucked Apart”!
Good luck with the giveaway!
Besides the usual, we used to make wishes on rainbows when I was a kid.
That’s interesting. I might take that up starting now.
We wish on stars. Also if you catch the clock when all the digits are the same (1:11,2:22….)
I have never heard of the clock thing.
Yep, I do this one.
Gosh, I haven’t thought about it in years, but living in the south we had to have one that related to watermelons. 🙂
When I was a kid, our parents told us that if you put a watermelon seed on your forehead and could make a wish before it fell off that your wish would come true.. Sounds easy, but for little kids who got tickled or siblings trying to make you move, it wasn’t that easy. Don’t know if it is a real tradition or just something our folks said to keep up occupied while they visited, but it was fun. It’s one of those things that you seemed to out grown unless you are the parent and needing a distraction. 🙂
Thank you for the chance to win an ARC of “Shucked Apart”. I would love the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book on my TBR list. Shared and hoping to be the fortunate one selected.
Have a great day and remember be safe, stay healthy and have a little adventure along the way – even if throught the pages of a good book.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
I have never heard of this watermelon thing. If your parents made it up, they were very clever!
What a fun topic. In my family we had two wishing traditions. From my mother’s side: if you saw a truck carrying hay you got to make a wish. (Now that I live in Kentucky that comes up more frequently than you might think.) From my father’s side: if you drove under a bridge with a train on it, you had to hold a button before you made your wish or it wouldn’t come true. I loved passing both these traditions on to my son.
I have never heard of either of these!
We did the wishbone thing, the pick up a penny only if it is the head thing, the dandelion thing, tossing a coin in any fountain, and the wish on a star thing.
Pick up a penny only if heads up? That’s interesting.
“Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.” I still say that to myself. No mention of heads-up only.
“See a penny, let it lay, bad luck will follow you all the day!” (No comment on the misuse of “lay” – it should be “lie.)
Never heard this one.
Birthday candles, shooting stars, dandelions (especially when I was a kid), coins in fountains, repeated numbers on a clock, wishbones – I’ve done them all.
Shooting stars in addition to the first star–yes!
“I’m looking over, a four leaf clover…..”. Wishing on a four leaf clover! Or on a rainbow.
I knew four leaf clovers and rainbows brought luck, but I didn’t know you could wish on them.
We don’t have any special wishing traditions. Sure, we wished on birthday candles, on the first star and on breaking the wishbone, but not since we were kids.
The classics!
Wishbones (hubby and I still do this), candles, dandelions, pennies, wishing wells, falling stars, four-leaf clovers, I should be the luckiest person alive! And maybe, I am. Like Kait, if you saw a car with only one headlight the first person to call pudiddle got a kiss, which was it’s own luck. Hubby and I still do this, too!
Looking forward to Shucked Apart.
Seriously, I thought this pudiddle thing was something Edith’s first husband’s family made up. Guess not!
I think dandelions, stars, and candles are the only ones I’ve got.
Traditionalists.
We did wishbones when I was a kid
Me, too! I saved one for my granddaughter this year, so I guess we still do it.
Grew up wishing on trucks of hay that passed on the road: Load of hay, load of hay, make a wish and look away.
If you didn’t look away and saw the truck again, your wish wouldn’t come true. 😀
These wishes that don’t happen unless you do something else are so interesting.
Shooting stars, Dandelions and wish bones.
The tried and true.
We have always made wishes on white horses we would see driving out in the country. And, of course shooting stars, birthday candles etc. Wishes are magical no matter how they happen!
Wishbones, dandelions first star you see in the sky at night are all the wishing things that I can think of! Looking forward to this book. We also said rabbit rabbit first thing on the first day of the month and that brings you good luck!
Is that where the expression rabbit, rabbit comes from, I wonder.
Barbara, go to Wikipedia and search for “rabbit, rabbit”. It gives a good explanation.
We wished on wishbone and dandelions. Always looked for four leaf clover.
I have wished when I have thrown a coin in a fountain. I have wished when I blew out the candles on a birthday cake. I have wished on a falling star. Thank you for the opportunity. God bless you.
Like several others we wished on multiple things. We made a wish when we blew out candles, threw a coin in a fountain, saw the first star of the night, blew on a dandelion, and pulled a wishbone too. As kids we always played outside at night at our grandparents house. Our thing was that the first person to catch a lightning bug that night got to make a wish on it when we turned it loose from our hands and it lit up flying away.
It’s been a long time since I wished on a wishbone, but we used to do that. Legallyblonde1961@yahoo.com
Okay, I’m an oddball, but even as a child, I SO wanted to travel. It became my habit every time I saw an airplane crossing the sky to say, “I wish I was going with you.” And it worked (sort of). My older son now lives in Singapore, so once a year it’s 17 hours in a metal tube to visit him! Moral: Be careful what you wish for 😉
I’m as much of an oddball as you. I don’t mind the hassles of flying as long as I’m going somewhere. Even now, I look at the planes overhead and want to be on one.
I would make a birthday wish before blowing out the candles on the cake. You got your wish on a dandelion only if you blew off ALL fluff. And wishing on the first star you saw.