Lucky hood
A bonnet of happiness ( Latin : Caput galeatum ) is used if the child is born with the amniotic sac ( membrane = amnion and chorion) over the head or face.
The tough egg membranes are whitish shimmering through, so that the contours of the face can be seen dimly. The happiness cap is harmless and can simply be removed from the head by the midwife or doctor immediately after the birth . A lucky bonnet is rare, but it is anything but unknown.
In general, a lucky bonnet can occur in all mammals .
Interpretation and superstition
In the Middle Ages , lucky hoods were considered a symbol of luck. They were seen as a good omen that the child was chosen for greatness of mind and magnanimity, or was endowed with advocacy eloquence . It was also believed that such children had supernatural abilities and could " see ".
In fact, the presence of a lucky bonnet in the Middle Ages was sometimes lucky for the mother if her child - for whatever reason - was stillborn. Infanticide was severely punished in the Middle Ages, and a mother with a dead newborn had little chance of proving that she had not killed it. But if the thin membrane of the amniotic sac in the dead newborn was still intact, it was believed that the mother could not have killed the child. So she was spared punishment.
It was a tradition to fold the skin on a piece of paper . The midwife rubbed the newborn's face with a piece of paper, pressing the skin onto the paper. This was given to the mother and should be kept as an heirloom . The “lucky hat” was often sewn into the children's clothing.
Over time, the superstition arose that the owner of a lucky bonnet was particularly lucky and that the bonnet protected him from drowning. Because of this, seafarers paid mothers and midwives large sums of money for lucky bonnets. A lucky bonnet was a valuable talisman .
According to the northerners' superstition, the guardian spirit or part of the child's soul lived in the happiness hood.
Literary adaptations
- In Grimm's fairy tale "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" , the protagonist is born with a lucky bonnet.
- The superstition that the bonnet of happiness is a talisman is taken up by Charles Dickens on the first pages of his novel David Copperfield , whose eponymous hero was born with a bonnet that nobody wanted to buy.