Hamsas - good luck charms from the Middle East

I first got interested in the hamsa symbol when a friend brought me one from Israel This lens will show you some of my favorite hamsas and places to find more.

I got more interested when my daughter was writing a paper on folk religion and the difference between the official dogmas of various religions and the way people actually practice them...

Good luck charms are popular among people of just about all religions, even though they may not be officially sanctioned by religious authorities. I suppose you could even call them pagan symbols on some level, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that!

Hamsas are made from all sorts of things - gold, silver and precious stones for jewelry; pottery, papercuts, and pewter; to rhinestones and tattoos. There are probably some cookies made like hamsas. The ones I make are painted.

According to wikipedia:

• The word khamsa means "five" in Arabic and is used in amulets, charms and jewelry to protect against the "evil eye." (perhaps "five fingers in the eye to blind the jealous or malevolent person.")
• It's common in Arab and Jewish cultures in the middle east
• The symbol predates monotheistic religions and was widely used in antiquity.
• An alternative Muslim name for the Khamsa: the Hand of Fatima (Fatima Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad)
• Jews sometimes call it the name Hand of Miriam (Miriam, the sister of the prophets Moses and Aaron).
• Some associate the five fingers with
  
  • The five books of the Torah for Jews
  • The Five Pillars of Islam for Sunnis
  • The five People of the Cloak for Shi'ites.
• This symbolism may have evolved at a later stage, in view of the fact that archaeological evidence suggests the hamsa predates both religions.
• It is thought by some to have originated with the Phoenicians.
• Some activists for Middle East peace wear the Khamsa as a symbol of the shared traditions between the Islamic and Jewish faiths.
• The fingers can point up or down.

More about hamsas:

• The hamsa hand appears both in a two-thumbed, bilaterally symmetrical form, as shown, and in a more natural form in which there is only one thumb.
• There is good archaeological evidence to suggest that the downward-pointing protective hamesh / hamsa hand predates both Judaism and Islam and refers to an ancient Middle Eastern goddess whose hand wards off the evil eye.
• the design in some examples merges into another design called the eye-in-hand motif. In those instances, a realistic or stylized eye appears in the center of the palm of the hand.

I started painting hamsas on Sunday afternoons while my friend Mark Chandler, down at the other end of the table, was addressing the prompt of the week from "Illustration Friday." The picture above is one of mine, and several that I've done are available as greeting cards, holiday cards, and on whatever item you like... So now that we're getting in the spirit for Hannukah gifts and Christmas gifts, I hope you'll visit my Zazzle store!