“The origin is unknown, though some writers have pointed to pre-Christian rituals involving the spirits of sacred trees such as the oak, ash, holly or hawthorn. There is, I’m told, an old Irish belief that you should knock on wood to let the little people know that you are thanking them for a bit of good luck. There’s also a belief that the knocking sound prevents the Devil from hearing your unwise comments. Others have sought a meaning in which the wood symbolises the timber of the cross, but this may be a Christianisation of an older ritual. It wasn’t always wood that was lucky: in older days, iron was also thought to have magical properties, and to touch iron was an equivalent preventative against ill-fortune.” http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tou1.htm

It is commonly thought that knocking on wood has been a superstitious action to ward off evil throughout history. Some believe it has to do with knocking on the wooden cross. Another explanation for this practice is the pagan belief that spirits (dryads) lived in trees. By knocking on the wood of a tree while making some sort of a bold statement, the speaker could prevent the spirit from hearing him and stop the spirit from interfering.

to prevent bad luck…

like if i said i have never broken a bone before but knock on wood i never want to…

It is commonly thought that knocking on wood has been a superstitious action to ward off evil throughout history. Some believe it has to do with knocking on the wooden cross. Another explanation for this practice is the pagan belief that spirits (dryads) lived in trees. By knocking on the wood of a tree while making some sort of a bold statement, the speaker could prevent the spirit from hearing him and stop the spirit from interfering.

In the Celtic religion of England they believed wood sprites lived in trees. If they heard wishes, they’d come out & jinx you, but if you knocked on the tree, you’d lock them in. So, we knock on wood to make sure no wood sprites jinx our wishes.

One would knock on a tree to awaken and call forth the wood nymphs as a way of asking for favourable protection from them whilst traveling in the woods. It’s just an extension of that, of asking to be favoured by them.

nah, its not so much for good luck, it when someone says something outloud and they don’t wanna jinx themselves. yeh, i suck at explaining…example..”omg, were so gonna win this soccer game” And right after that that person or another person has to quickly knock on wood or else they might have jinxed themselves and they won’t win.

The Druids believed that trees had spirits. They were the original tree huggers.

i scurried over here to find out.

now i guess i’ll just wait here will you,til someone who Does Know comes along…

~Laurie < knocks wood *Edit .. to Milkaholic.. You Rock! (and so does Dr Brainy. 🙂 ...thank the tree ffolke. i like that. ... : )

Mere superstion.

On my Yahoo homepage, it has an article where someone askes YA 3 months ago, here is the link…

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylc=X3oDMTFtMXI2N3ZvBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMzk2NTQ1MTAzBHNlYwNmcm9udCBwYWdlBHNsawNGUC1Ub2RheUludA–?qid=20070502195211AAkkEKR&fr=hp