Newcomer shares a family joke

By Garima Haldar

Image credit: Surendra Basnet on Pexels

Our new neighbours are originally from Portugal and while they went to school and university in Canada and thus are fluent in English, their parents are not.

So our communication with the parents tends to be more through smiles, nods and gestures. One day, while chatting with them, I happened to say, “Touch wood” while tapping my head.

The lady immediately wanted to know what that meant. It’s something I saw my mother do and I’ve done instinctively practically all my life, without really thinking about it, when I want to convey gratitude to the universe for things having gone well or when I am hoping nothing will go wrong.

“But why wood?” she persisted. “And why tap your head?”

I realized that I actually had no idea why we did that, which, of course, prompted a Google search. Among all the info on it, I found it interesting that two opposite origin stories explained the practice.

According to one, it derives from the pagan belief that malevolent spirits inhabited wood, and that if you expressed a hope for the future you should touch, or knock on, wood to prevent the spirits from hearing and presumably preventing your hopes from coming true.

According to another, it derives from pantheistic religions where trees, rivers etc., were supposedly inhabited by spirits or deities. To touch a tree was to seek the spirit’s blessing and/or ward off its wrath.

There was stuff about sexual connotations, too, but we can safely rule those out where my mother’s use of it was concerned.

While malevolent spirit or benevolent deity might be cause for some confusion, the second part was easy, I said with a laugh. It was a family joke that we had wooden blocks for heads!

What’s your story? Every newcomer, no matter how savvy or where he or she comes from, has a story to share about their early days in Canada. Do you want to share your story? E-mail it to us at canadaboundimmigrant@rogers.com.