Fingers Crossed

As with the Sign of the Cross, the Fingers Crossed action is used when the person feels the need for good luck, courage or protection. Most people accept that it's superstition at its simplest, yet is it so common, in both action and speech. But when did it originate?

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).

Of course, fingers are not the only things we cross for a specific reason. Body linguists might say crossed arms are a defensive posture and if arms are crossed over the upper chest, this shows the person is holding back something, perhaps anger. Or maybe the person is just cold.

Crossed legs are supposed to imply the person is closed to ideas. Alternatively, the person may have back-ache which is relieved by crossing the legs.

Crossed eyes just means the person has strabismus. Abraham Lincoln and Barbra Streisand are some of the many famous people with this condition. British comedian Marty Feldman made a fortune with it. (See also All-Seeing Eye Cross)

Custom has it that if you keep your fingers crossed you may lie with impunity. Therefore, we can say with complete honesty that all the information on this page is absolutely 100% definitely and unquestionably true!