Knock on Wood
By Emma Restuccia
We have just completed October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary. Knock on wood, here’s hoping Mary’s intercession through all those rosaries said during the month will help bring peace and healing to our world. After all, the saying “knock on wood” has a Catholic connection to the holy rosary and to the Cross. It is a fitting time to reflect on the popular devotion of the rosary and to grow in appreciation of it throughout the year.
The phrase and practice of “knocking on wood”, as it is commonly used today, is superstitious. The practice of literally knocking on or touching something wood to ward off bad luck or to continue good luck may have originated from pagan cultures or folklore. Some historians believe the phrase comes from ancient pagan beliefs that fairies or spirits lived in trees. Knocking on tree wood, then, was a way to invoke the blessings of these spirits, or distract and ward off the evil spirits. Other sources note the phrase may have come from a children’s game, similar to “tag,” in which players had to touch wood to be “safe.
But the common saying also has Christian origins and interpretations. Another explanation for the phrase “knock on wood” refers to the practice of praying the Holy Rosary, in a time when rosaries were often made of wood. Over time, Christianity adapted this pagan practice. To understand the whole meaning, let’s look back at the story of the rosary.
The history of the rosary has unclear beginnings. Prayer beads were used in early pagan and Christian times, and in the Middle Ages, the structure of the rosary became more defined. Because many people could not read or could not afford a breviary to say prayers, the laity would recite 150 Our Fathers, to mirror the 150 Psalms prayed in the Psalter by those in religious life. In this way, they could participate more fully in the liturgical prayer of the monastic tradition. This prayer became known as the “poor man’s breviary,” and beads were utilized to assist in this devotion. These strings were single decades of beads and a cross, called paternosters (meaning “Our Father” in Latin). Eventually, the practice evolved to Hail Marys, being divided into fifteen sets of ten prayers, each beginning with an Our Father.
In the 13th century, St. Dominic further spread devotion to the Holy Rosary. Some traditions say the saint received a vision of the Blessed Mother, in which she revealed the rosary to him as a remedy for the times. In their preaching throughout Europe against the Albigensian heresy, the Dominicans urged the faithful to pray the rosary and to combat evil with the spiritual weapon of prayer. Even today, Dominican religious wear their rosaries on their belts in imitation of a sword.
Prayer beads were made of different materials, such as knotted string, stone, precious metals, or bone, and commonly, wood. Thus, the phrase “knock on wood” might suggest the rattling of rosary beads during prayer. Another source suggests the phrase may have been used during the persecution of Catholics in Ireland beginning in the late 17th century, when Catholics would rattle their wooden rosary beads to signify danger was nearby.
Whatever the origin, touching wood can be taken as a Christianized practice of fingering the wooden beads of a rosary and calling on Our Lady for her spiritual guidance and intercession. Throughout history, Mary’s intercession through the rosary has been an unfailing help to Christians. In 1571, during the naval Battle of Lepanto, Catholics in Europe and the army of the Holy Roman Empire prayed the rosary to defeat the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Though they were greatly outnumbered, the Christian fleet succeeded in fending off the Turkish army. Pope Pius V subsequently instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory, known later as Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, to commemorate the victory and to honor our Lady. The feast is celebrated on October 7, and the month is dedicated to the Holy Rosary.
Touching wood has other stronger meanings as well. In Catholic symbolism, wood almost always refers to the Wood of the Cross of Christ. Tradition holds that St. Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, found the true cross in the 300s. The wood of the cross was then venerated in Jerusalem. Still today, the Good Friday liturgy includes the veneration of the cross, in which the faithful revere the cross as the instrument of salvation by bowing before, kissing, or touching a cross. Thus, touching wood––the Wood of the cross––invokes the virtue of the cross as a sign of victory, the new Tree which saves mankind from the sin of Adam and Eve committed at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It calls to mind Christ’s sacrifice, orients our life to Him, and saves us from death.
While not related to the saying “knock on wood,” the scriptures are full of important reference to knocking. In the Song of Solomon, the Beloved stands at the door and knocks. Christ teaches, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,” (Lk 11:9). The final book of the Bible urges: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).
All these references invite us into a life with Christ, to answer his pleading knocks, and welcome him into our lives and hearts. By the gift of the Cross and the devotion of the rosary we, in turn, knock. As we knock on the wood of the rosary and the cross, let us call on the name of Jesus as our true salvation.
I hope you will join me in picking up a rosary––particularly a wooden one––and knocking on wood the right way this (and every) month. We need it now more than ever.
