15 Highway

Good Luck Goldfish – Can those pretty little fish bring you Luck?

By Honey B Wackx

If one were to try to come up with a symbol of good luck what better way to start with than thinking of something gold. Since gold in most or probably all countries is expensive, it’s easy to associate it with good luck. Wealth is often associated with good luck and gold is often associated with wealth.

For most people gold is something they wish they could have if they cannot afford it, and is often associated with good luck, such as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

When doing research into good luck I thought of gold, and then almost instinctively thought of goldfish. I checked it out in my library of information about good luck and sure enough, there it was. The pretty little goldfish is a symbol of good luck to some people.  In fact, it is a superstition. While most superstitions are of an evil nature or connote bad luck, the case of the little goldfish, with few exceptions, symbolizes good luck.

Actually goldfish are a relatively new addition to the American public, being introduced here around 1878 by a U. S. Navy Officer. Those superstitious Americans that believe in the good luck brought by the goldfish adopt the same idea as the Egyptians. That is, that the little goldfish are mascots and are particularly fortunate to lovers.

If you have a little fish of gold, silver, or mother-of-pearl it represents a lucky gift between sweethearts. Goldfish are often believed to be responsible for the harmony that exists between husband and wife.

The goldfish is originally from China and sprang from many years of selective breeding. That was centuries ago. The goldfish is a member of the Carp family, Carassius Auratus. In Eastern traditional beliefs, fish on the whole are looked upon as a symbol of fertility. That’s because of the ridiculously large number of eggs they produce.

The Greeks and Romans also believed in the superstition that a goldfish was a mascot that had the power to bring good luck in everything associated with courtship and marriage. When fish-mascot happens to be a carp, and goldfish are a member of that family, it is given the power of bestowing perseverance and good fortune in worldly affairs. Not just that, but also of bringing good luck to lovers

These traditional Eastern beliefs have moved west to America. The extraordinary powers of the carp are based on an old Egyptian legend that the carp alone, of all the fish, had the courage and perseverance to leap the waterfall and so gain the chariot of cloud which carried it to heaven.

It is sometimes speculated that this belief was the origin of keeping goldfish as pets since goldfish are really golden carps. When a goldfish stays at the bottom of a jar or bowl, superstitious people of the west, like those of the east, believe it indicates rain. Now if your pet goldfish stays at the bottom of the bowl or tank, don’t go running outside looking for the rain. Don’t we wish it were that simple to predict rain!

Lest you think all is good luck and fortune with the lowly little goldfish, know that there are some parts of America and England where the keeping of goldfish was considered unlucky. This opposite view of the superstition may have come about as a reaction to the old pagan belief in the auspicious attributes, or ability of the goldfish to bring good fortune.