I don't know if I believe in "good luck," but I do believe in the placebo effect - hamsas for happiness!
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.
- 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!
My newest hamsa
"Chai" hamsa
Chai means "life"
This is my third hamsa. I see I'm settling on a theme that includes the all-seeing eye and fish.
Big fish hamsa
I really like this one but my daughter thinks the fish is creepy.
My Chanukah lenses
Or Hannukah or Hanukkah or Hanukah or ...
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When does Hanukkah begin in 2009?
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Hannukah is based on the Jewish calendar - it begins at sundown on the 25th day of Kislev and concludes on the 2nd or 3rd day of Tevet (Kislev can have 29 or 30 days). Quick answer: in 2009, Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday, December 11, 2009. Ha...
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How do you spell Hanukkah?
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The pie chart here is from the blog Unbecoming Levity - the author researched spellings of this Jewish Holiday in a OneLook.com dictionary search and plotted out which are the most common spellings. His conclusion: Hanukkah 39%, Chanukah 31%, Hanukah...
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The TJC Hanukah Songbook
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I was music director for the "Cantor Corps" at Temple Judea Reform in Durham and directed the Triangle Jewish Chorale for fourteen years. Before that, I directed a group called the Solstice Assembly which put on many winter shows incorporat...
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Music for Jewish chorales: The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook
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My boss, Gayla Halbrecht, says it was 1994 when I took up the job of conducting our chorus; that means I spent fourteen years at the helm. I love the people in the group very much, and I love the music. This lens showcases the songbook I put t...
Some more hamsot on Squidoo
Squidoo's Trixi has hamsot on her lens (that's the plural of hamsa). Cool, eh?-
Trixi Jahn's Art
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Hi...I'm Beatrix Jahn, called Trixi by my friends. I live in a small town outside of Nuremberg, Germany. When I was a child, my father motivated me to draw...he was very creative, and you could say he layed the "seed" for my passion. When I was 8-14...
My Zazzle storefront
Original art on cards, cups, whatever you like...
Hamsas make great wedding gifts. Do you need wedding music, too?
Jewish wedding music, but folk, light classical, celtic, and swing music for dancing too!
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North Carolina wedding musicians: live music is best!
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My two bands play for weddings in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and people always love the live music. But I see, because my daughter is getting married next year and sends me links to various wedding blogs, that tips for economizing...
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Jewish wedding music
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My band Mappamundi (it means "Map of the World") has played at many Jewish weddings since 1994 and I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite music for preludes, ceremonies, and receptions. There are many kinds of Jewish music. T...
Do you have a hamsa? Would you like to?
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Reply
- TrixiJahn TrixiJahn Nov 4, 2009 @ 9:01 am
- Fantastic Lens. I collect Hamsas!!! Paint them too on occations.
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Reply
- d-artist d-artist Nov 4, 2009 @ 7:56 am
- what a great lens! my cousin introduced me to Hamsa and I bought her one when I went back to Germany, she also paints many images of them..see her TrixiJahnsArt lens ...love your art...5*
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Reply
- 0ctavias0fferings 0ctavias0fferings Jul 7, 2009 @ 7:43 am
- Very nice lens, beautiful artwork and a wonderful tradition. 5*
Some of my other lenses...
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Making Uncle Shlomo's Pushcart
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This lens is the story of three people's project to revive an old form of retail merchandising - the pushcart. I read "The Pushcart Wars" to my kids when they were young, and thought the whole idea was utterly wonderful. So when my frie...
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The Laduvane Songbook - Balkan singing for everybody
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This songbook was published by the a cappella Balkan ensemble Laduvane in 1977, after we'd made our first recording. It's amazing the difference one person can make. Recently a woman named Chris emailed me and said she'd lost her original copy of th...
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I love Yiddish music!
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First, I fell in love with Yiddish folk and theater songs I've been singing music in Yiddish since the early 1980s, when I heard one of the first concerts given at the New England Conservatory by Hankus Netsky and his Klezmer Conservatory Band. ...
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I've been a Pratie Head for many's the long year... (Celtic Music)
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I'd been living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, singing Balkan music with the acappella women's ensemble Laduvane,and singing American folksongs in a band called "Rank Strangers." In 1981 I married and my husband moved us to Chapel Hill, NC. This lens i...
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Russian woodcuts of Star Wars and Harry Potter in Old Church Slavonic? Lubki!
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This is my second lens based on a Slavic mystery. A couple years ago I stumbled upon these modern parodies of the Russian folk woodprints called lubki (singular, lubok). The artist is Andrei Kuznetsov. I wrote to the artist and got no response. There...
Online sources of hamsas
- Hamsas at "Silver Impressions"
- Hamsas - Unique Designs by Israeli artists
- Here you'll find wide selection of Hamsas by Israeli Artists, such as Ester Shahaf, Michal David, Yossi Steinberg, Lior Gluska and more.Hamsa is a symbol used in amulets, charms, jewelry, door entrances, cars, and other places.
- Hamsa - The best selection of Hamsas at rotem.net
- Hamsa Hand | Canaan Online Jewish Gifts
- Hamsas and Hamsa hand - Unique designs by Israeli artists.
- Hamsas as applique
- 10 Hamsa Applique Embroidery Designs.
- Hamsa, Chamsa, Khamsa, Hamesh - yalyjudaica.com
- Gorgeous hamsa ketuba
- Hamsa ketubahHigh quality printed ketubah, hand gilded in 23 carat gold leaf
with personalised text. All texts available.
This lens is part of Chapel Hill Fiddler's Jewish Lenses CollectionBest Jewish Books • Best Jewish Lenses • Mystery band from the Ukraine • Chai Lifeline helps sick Jewish kids • Hamsa: beautiful good-luck charm from Israel • TJC Hanukah Songbook • When does Chanukah begin in 2009? • How do you spell Hanukkah? • Jewish choral music songbook • I love Yiddish music! • The Jewish Storyteller • Jewish Wedding Music • Mani Leib, famous Yiddish poet-shoemaker • Purim Puppets of Michel Nedjar • A Sephardic song about eggplants • Uncle Shlomo's Pushcart • I love Yiddish!
by ChapelHillFiddler
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