Or, says Montague, one might see a hamsa not as a full hand but as some grouping representing five fingers: five dots on a glazed platter, five cowry shells studding a leather amulet. Some are incorporated into her property’s boho interiors, others are personal.Ĭharms can also be abstracted or spun out into less-recognizable forms-evil eyes represented by triangular patterns in a carpet or rounded mirrors on a tapestry. Speaking on Zoom from Peacock Pavilions, the hotel she operates there, she shows me an array of amulets from Mali, Morocco, Afghanistan, and beyond. They follow the trader paths-so people were sharing culture,” says Maryam Montague, an Iranian-American collector/entrepreneur in Marrakesh, Morocco. “A lot of these traditions and beliefs are more universal than just Moroccan or Muslim or Arab. (Related: Seeking handcrafted souvenirs? These are some of the world’s best markets.) They’re available to go on necklaces, wall hangings, door knockers, coffee mugs, and what are surely meant to be protective candles. The graceful palms-which Jews call Hands of Miriam and Muslims know as Hands of Fatima-are rendered in brass, tin, enamel, and other materials. But perhaps my journey was safer because of it?Īnother age-old Silk Road amulet: hand-shaped hamsas, plentiful in markets from Morocco to Israel. I saw it as beautiful trinket and didn’t realize its full meaning at the time. Decades ago in Istanbul, I recall purchasing a porcelain blue evil-eye ( nazar boncuğu) pendant. ![]() ![]() In Turkey and in other parts of the Islamic world, the unblinking eyeballs are everywhere, staring out from bowls, bracelets, and even doormats. ![]() They’re supposed to avert a destructive glance, also known as the evil eye, a concept that dates back some 5,000 years to the Sumerians of the Euphrates Valley. Among the oldest are evil eyes, those blue and white circles and orbs piled up in bazaars and souks in Mediterranean and Arabian regions. Evil eyes, helping handsĪpotropaic objects, symbols that banish bad spirits, have been with humans for thousands of years. In central Mexico’s colonial San Miguel de Allende, the corazón is both a city symbol and a ubiquitous souvenir meant to hang on your wall, sold milagro-covered, decoupaged with Frida Kahlo’s face or stamped out of tin. Widespread symbols of both Catholic faith and romantic love, corazones are also rumored to shield users against heartbreak and heart disease. The little shiny things are often plastered on a small wooden or metal sacred heart ( corazón). Their meanings veer between literal and figurative: A milagro of an arm might be used to banish tennis elbow or gain strength a dog charm could keep your perro healthy. The tiny metal charms show up in churches and souvenir shops alike, often depicting body parts or creatures in need of healing or divine intervention. Throughout Mexico and Central America, people have long sought solace with milagros (miracles). Mexican President Andréa Manuel López Obrador even brandished several of his own amulets during a spring press conference addressing the pandemic. In parts of Indonesia, people are making tetek melek, traditional homemade masks crafted from coconut palm fronds, hung above doorways to ward off danger. Scan the global news, and you’ll find these bits of hope in urgent use during the coronavirus crisis. Rabbit feet were popular during the Depression World War II fighter pilots often flew with fuzzy dice. ![]() When things get dire, people look for anything that signals better days ahead. “We are living through very uncertain times,” he adds. “People become superstitious when they have to face uncertainty in performance, such as athletes and actors,” says Wiseman. In times of trouble or doubt, many of us reach for a good luck charm. “The fact that they come up in every culture through time shows how much luck and superstition is embedded in our DNA,” says Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and author of The Luck Factor. But all seem both unique to their birthplaces and universal to human nature. Some totemic objects stem from faith (Buddhas in Southeast Asia), others from tradition (colorful, geometric hex charms hung on barns in U.S. But these cultural symbols both educate and enchant us. Of course, there’s no proof any such tokens, which travelers commonly pick up as souvenirs, actually work. Whether you grasp such good luck charms in your palm, wear them around your neck, or mount one near your front door these talismans or amulets are meant to provide a shortcut to a better future, a warding off of evil spirits or bad forces. A version of this story appears in the December 2020 issue of National Geographic.įour-leaf clovers in Ireland.
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