Cosmic Harmony

Viel Glück im Neuen Jahr 🎉 The German phrase “Schwein haben” [lit. to have a pig] means ‘to be lucky’ and a peculiar New Year’s tradition in Germany is the gifting of marzipan pigs for good luck. There is, indeed, evidence that the idea of a lucky pig was already around in the later Middle Ages, when pigs were assigned a high value in board and card games. The use of piggish effigies as talismans has an even longer history. The “lucky pig” makes an appearance in the medieval board game Glückshaus [House of Fortune]. This game, probably invented in the fifteenth century but gaining popularity in the Early Modern period, is played with two dices and a board.