Why is there the Portuguese tradition of decorating things with good luck roosters?

If you’ve ever eaten at the Portuguese-Mozambican restaurant chain, Nando’s, you most likely noticed their logo: a stylized rooster. Although a rooster makes a good logo for a restaurant specializing in chicken, there is a deeper story behind this rooster which is connected to the restaurant’s Portuguese affiliation. If you ever visit Portugal you’re likely to see a rooster in many of the souvenir shops and also in many Portuguese homes. This Portuguese rooster is called the “Galo de Barcelos”, or the Rooster of Barcelos and it is one of the unofficial emblems of Portugal.

What is the Rooster of Barcelos and how did it become the emblem of Portugal?

The image of the Portuguese rooster of Barcelos is a reference to an old legend in which a rooster miraculously saved a man’s life!

The story is set in a city called Barcelos which is located in north-west Portugal. Pilgrims often passed through Barcelos as part of their pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela; A pilgrimage route also known as the Way of St James, which is still walked by devout Christians to this day. It was one such pilgrim who was instrumental in bringing the legend of the lucky rooster to life in Portugal.

Exhausted from the long walk, the pilgrim decided to rest his weary legs at an inn in Barcelos. Whilst there, a local man discovered that his silver had been stolen. Since the pilgrim was new in the town and happened to have been in the vicinity around the time when the silver went missing, an accusatory finger was swiftly pointed at the pilgrim. The pilgrim was duly arrested and set to be hanged for his dastardly deed.

Knowing he was innocent, the pilgrim made a desperate plea to appeal his case to the local judge. Agreeing grudgingly, the guards took the pilgrim to see the judge who happened to be in the middle of a sumptuous banquet. The spread was magnificent with a delicious roasted rooster sitting enticingly on the table. The pilgrim interrupted the feast and made his case. The sceptical judge ignored the pilgrim’s desperate words, saying that there was no proof of his innocence.

Certain of his innocence and unwavering in his belief in the power of a fair and loving God, the pious pilgrim fell to his knees and began fervently praying to his Maker. Spotting the roasted rooster on the table, he prayed that God would prove his innocence by making the rooster that was sitting on the platter before the judge, come to life and crow in protest should the hanging take place.

Unconvinced, but losing his appetite, the judge set the rooster aside in disgust and asked the guards to take the pilgrim away. The hanging would go ahead as planned.

The hour of the hanging of the unfortunate pilgrim arrived and just as the punishment was to be exected, a rooster’s loud crow pierced the air! Witnesses claimed to have seen the cast-aside roasted rooster standing up from the table and crowing, just as the pilgrim had prayed it would.

Realising the implications of the crow, the judge quickly regretted the hanging and commanded the pilgrim be released from the gallows immediately. Greatly relieved, the pilgrim was freed and continued on his way to Santiago de Compostelo, having been saved by the miraculous crowing roasted rooster!

Such a miracle was reminiscent of those only read about in the Bible. It was so momentous that ever since then the rooster took its proud place in the history of Portugal.

A symbol of the rooster was painted on objects to act as a reminder of this miracle and of the moral of this tale.

What exactly is the moral of this story? What does the Rooster of Barcelos represent?

The rooster of Barcelos stands for:

• Honesty: The pilgrim was innocent. He did not steal and expressed this truthfully. His honesty was eventually rewarded by God who provided a miracle that saved his life.
• Faith: If it weren’t for the pious pilgrim’s faith in God, the story may have had a different ending, so this legend demonstrates both the power of God and the importance of having faith.
• Fairness: The tale reminds us to be fair, refrain from believing unproven accusations and avoid making potentially unjust, snap judgements of our fellow man.
• Luck: Some call the rooster of Barcelos the “good luck rooster” or the “lucky rooster” because it was a rooster that saved the pilgrim’s life. As a result it is considered by some to be lucky to have his image around.

With all these positive messages behind it, it is no wonder that the rooster’s popularity has held strong to this day. And Nando’s restaurants can be proud of their logo because the traits it represents are admirable ones for any business to have!

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- Maneki Neko the Waving Lucky Cat: Why do we consider the Beckoning Cat to be lucky?
- Why do we consider the rabbit’s foot lucky?

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If you’re not Chinese or Japanese, you may not have heard the term “maneki neko” but you may well have seen one; most probably in a Chinese or Japanese restaurant or shop. Maneki neko is a good luck charm in the form of a cat figurine that has one paw raised in what looks like a kind of wave. It’s often nicknamed “the lucky waving cat”. Why would a waving cat be lucky?

Maneki neko meaning:
Although it is often mistaken for a wave, this lucky cat is actually not waving. It’s designed to be beckoning. The meaning of “Maneki neko” in Japanese is “beckoning cat”. Some believe that the higher its paw, the more luck the cat beckons in.

What kind of luck is this beckoning cat supposed to bring?
The kind of luck the maneki neko is said to bring depends on which paw it is holding up, and also depending on the cat’s color.

Luck brought depending on which paw is raised:
People differ in their interpretation but generally the following is believed:

• Left paw raised: This is thought to bring luck in the form of beckoning in people, such as guests or more customers for your business.
• Right paw raised: This is believed to beckon in good luck, particularly in money and wealth. For this reason, some maneki neko sculptures have been made into hollow statues with coin slots in them, serving as piggy banks.

Luck brought depending on maneki neko colors:

• White maneki neko often with tricolor spots or patches: This is considered to bring pure good luck because tricolor cats are not an everyday occurrence, much like good luck.
• Black maneki neko color: This is thought to ward off evil and disease.
• Gold maneki neko color: This is believed to invite in money and wealth.

Why is this beckoning cat sculpture thought to be lucky?
There are many stories about why beckoning cat sculptures became popular. No-one knows the exact true origins, but it is known that it arose in Japan around the 1800s. This is confirmed by the bib it wears which was common cat adornment in wealthier homes in the Edo Period (1603-1867). The following are the most popular stories about the maneki neko origins:

Story 1: Maneki Neko are in Honor of a Cat who Saved a Japanese nobleman’s life

This story is that a nobleman was going for a stroll and was deep in thought when he noticed a movement at the side of his eye. He stopped in his tracks to see what the movement was and saw a cat on the side of the road apparently beckoning him towards it with its paw. Curious, the nobleman approached the cat. When he returned to the road, he noticed a trap had been laid out for him and he thought to himself: “Had I not been shaken from my thoughts by this remarkable beckoning cat, I would not have noticed the trap! I owe this cat my life!” In honor of this cat, he made a beckoning cat figurine which he said was a wise and lucky figurine to keep.

Another version of this story is that rather than a trap, it was lightning from which a nobleman was saved. This story goes that a lord was visiting the Gotoku-ji Temple in Japan during a thunderstorm and he was taking refuge from the rain under a tree. He saw the temple cat seeming to beckon him with his paw, and as the lord went to investigate, the tree he had been standing underneath a moment earlier got struck by lightning. In gratitude for this temple cat that saved his life, the wealthy lord gave lots of money to the temple and he commissioned that cat decorations be painted on the temple walls. To this day the Goutoku-ji Temple houses cat paintings and sculptures and even contains a cat cemetery. When the cat eventually died the lord ordered a sculpture of a beckoning cat to be made which was to be considered lucky. This figurine became associated not only with luck but also with the lord’s wealth.

Story 2: Maneki Neko are an extension of an older superstition about cats washing their faces

Some suggest that there is an ancient Japanese superstition derived from an old Chinese proverb that says that when a cat is seen to be washing its face, it means it will rain soon. This evolved into a belief that when a cat raises its paw to wash its face it will “rain” people upon you like guests and customers. Customers bring wealth and are therefore good luck. So the raised hand of the maneki neko may be a hand raised in face-wash action.

Story 3: Maneki Neko brought wealth to its creator and therefore bring luck and prosperity

This story goes that the first Maneki Neko was made by a poor old woman who was so poor she could no longer keep her beloved cat. Soon after she gave up her cat, he came to her in a dream, telling her to make a sculpture of him in clay. This she did, and soon people expressed interest in buying her creation. She sold it and made more until eventually the cat sculpture made her extremely wealthy. Ever since then, the Maneki neko was believed to bring prosperity to all who had one.

Story 4: Maneki Neko are in honor of a cat who saved a woman from a snake

This is perhaps one of the most widely told stories about the maneki neko. This story is about a geisha called Usugumo who had a pet cat she loved dearly. One night as the geisha-house owner passed by Usugumo, her cat became frenetic and feverishly began pulling at Usugumo’s kimono. Alarmed and thinking the cat to be possessed, the geisha-house owner took a nearby sword and decapitated the cat. Not a great story for the cat… but the cat’s head flew through the air, hitting a snake which had been curled up on the ceiling, poised to strike at Usugumo’s head. It seemed the cat may have been warning Usugumo and as its final dutiful act to its owner, it saved her from this poisonous snake. Distraught by the death of her cat, a customer sought to cheer her up by making her a sculpture of her lucky cat that had saved her life.

Although this story may sound a bit strange, Usugumo indeed lived around the time when the first maneki neko appeared and it is believed that the first maneki nekos were seen in geisha houses.

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Even if most of us today don’t carry rabbits’ feet around with us, most of us are aware of them as a superstitious symbol of good luck. Why do we consider the rabbit’s foot lucky?

Of all animals, why is a rabbit’s foot lucky? In fact, why would any animal be seen as lucky?

Several millennia ago, around 600 BC, long before people knew anything about science and evolution, it was believed that humans were descended from animals. Where ancient thought deviated from modern evolutionary thought was in the ancient belief that different tribes of humans evolved from different animals. This belief is known as “totemism”. People found parallels between human traits and animal behaviors until eventually certain animals were seen to be lucky for particular things. The animal’s luckiness was also influenced by other ancient spiritual beliefs. For example, the animal’s believed magical powers were sometimes based on its interaction with “gods” like the sun, the earth or the skies.

The symbolism of rabbits
Rabbits were a symbol of several particular traits:

• Fruitfulness:
  One of the things the rabbit is most famous for is for its talent for procreation! Observed by our ancestors, they would have linked the rabbit with human traits like:
  - Prosperity,
  - Successful harvests,
  - Fertility, reproductive and romantic success,
  - Growth
  - Abundance
  - Longevity of your family line
  - Birth and rebirth, as occurs in spring (which may partly be why we have the Easter bunny that pops up in spring time)

• Wisdom:
  Since the rabbit and the hare are born with open eyes (unlike humans) this made ancient people think that rabbits must know a lot about where they came from and about the mysteries of procreation. Based on this, people began connecting rabbits and hares with wisdom. The rabbit’s cleverness was not only believed to be limited to knowledge about creation. Throughout folklore the rabbit is seen to use its quickness and wiliness to outwit his enemies, not too unlike Bugs Bunny!


• Protection from evil forces and connection with ground spirits:
  There is a theory that rabbits may have been imbued with protective power against evil. It is thought by some that ancient humans used to believe that hellish entities lived underground in the underworld. Since burrowing rabbits could survive in spite of spending much of their time close to these evil entities, they must have special protective powers again these forces, giving the rabbit a lucky, protective power.
  Other people think that the rabbit’s burrowing ability simply gave people the impression that the rabbit was in good terms with a world humans knew little about: a world imbued with spirits that could make your crops grow and spirits that looked after all things buried. By holding onto a rabbit a human could therefore let some of the good vibes between the rabbit and these underground spirits, rub off on them.
  Finally the rabbit’s burrowing ability in darkness may have lent it luck for venturing into the unknown.

Of all body parts, why did they choose the rabbit’s foot?

Although various parts of rabbits were used as lucky charms, including the tail, ears and even the innards, the foot was always considered the luckiest part of the rabbit. Why? It’s possible that luck was attributed to the foot because it resembled a phallus. Ancient cave paintings seem to include rabbits’ feet in this context, using them as a phallic symbol.

From ancient superstitions to the present

It’s amazing that our culture retains remnants of beliefs that arose millennia ago and that these stay with us despite the advancement of human knowledge. Hopefully we’ve become more humane over time and most of us wouldn’t want to kill animals for the sake of luck. I for one would definitely favor a lucky pet rabbit over a decrepit foot on a keychain. I reckon its foot should be just as lucky if not luckier when it is permeated with life force and when attached to the cute little critter.

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