What is the history of lucky pigs?
402074
Germans and other Germanic peoples today have many positive expressions that tie luck to the pig. Someone who comes into something good is told "schwein haben" (to have pig). One is a "lucky pig" if one picks the correct lottery numbers or wins something. A proverb says "One who wants to make an impression buys a horse, one who wants to become wealthy breeds pigs." \nThere are several legends discussing where the pig's reputation came from. Germany's ancient people, the Teutons, sacrificed the pig, their most valuable animal to the gods to ensure good luck. (The pig was a symbol of fertility and wealth to the Teutons as well, helping to ensure pregancy. Perhaps they shared or transferred this belief to or from the ancient Greeks, who revered the pig because pigs were said to suckle Zeus.)\n\nIn another story, the city of Luneburg became wealthy because a pig showed a hunter a source of invaluable salt and the pig is still thanked today. Our favorite story dates to the Middle Ages and says that the person who came in last in a shooting competition was awarded a pig. This person had undeserved luck to "have pig."\n\nAs a common domesticated animal it is not surprising that other cultures have legends about the lucky pig. The Greek fertility god Demeter was associated with pigs. The pig was associated with several Egyptian gods. Celts believed their god Manannan owned magic pigs that could be eaten and reappear the next day. Native Americans believed the pig had the power to bring rain. Of course, we're all familiar with piggy banks as a source of wealth.\n\nWe know the pig is intelligent. Pigs breed quickly and bring wealth. It is associated with good luck and fertility. All good qualities. We all need to "have pig!"
896971
The word "piggyback," as in, "Honey, it's my turn to get a piggyback tonight," derives from the terms "pickpack," "pickback," and even "pick-a-pack," all used in the 17th century to indicate the act of hoisting something onto someone's back for carrying. According to the Random House Word of the Day, most etymologists assume "pick" is a variant of the verb "to pitch," meaning "to throw." "Pack" refers to items meant for carrying.\n\nBut how did the piggy grunt its way into the mix? Did giant domesticated hogs, back in the day, do the work of packhorses? No, what we have here, apparently, is a failure to communicate: a textbook case of folk etymology, in which a word is modified to something more common or easily understood when the original term has become obsolete, and thus devoid of meaning. Some examples of folk etymology at work, according to Wikipedia, are the evolving of the words "shamefast" into "shamefaced," "buttonhole into "buttonhold," and "sweetard" into "sweatheart." (But there's no truth to the rumor that Ask Yahoo! used to be called "Axe Yahoos," back in the dot-com downturn days.)
1183567
They were the LUCKY ones!
1170948
yeah. go to snopes.com they will tell you all about them and how they originated.
12992
In Middle English, "pygg" referred to a type of clay used for making various household objects such as jars. People often saved money in kitchen pots and jars made of pygg, called "pygg jars". By the 18th Century, the spelling of "pygg" had changed and the term "pygg jar" had evolved to "pig bank." This name may have caught on because the pig banks were mostly used by children, and the pig is a child-friendly shape that is easy to fashion out of clay. The actual origin of the name bears no relation to the pig itself.\n\nWhat also helped to start the change from jar to pig was during the 18th century, an order of 200 "pygg" jars was sent for by a shop owner. The person on the receiving end of this letter did not understand and hand crafted 200 coin holders that were shaped like pigs. When this order was received they were shelved and sold very quickly. The new pig shaped coin holder became popular. Once the shop had run out of stock, they sent off for more pig-shaped coin holders.
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No one invented the piggy bank. The piggy banks' origin owes more to the history of language, than to an individual inventor. In old english (around the 15th century) there was a word "pygg" which referred to a type of orange clay. People made all kinds of useful objects out of clay, including dishes and jars to hold spare change. Around the 18th century, the word "pygg" now sounded the same as the word for the animal "pig". An unknown person(s) thought to shape a  "pygg" jar, to look just like a real "pig". Perhaps an order came in for a "pygg" jar and the potter misunderstood.
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The OED cites an 1811 reference to a "pig" as a Bow Street Runner--the early police force, named after the location of their headquarters, before Sir Robert Peel and the Metropolitan Police Force (see above.) Before that, the term "pig" had been used as early as the mid-1500s to refer to a person who is heartily disliked.\n\nThe usage was probably confined to the criminal classes until the 1960s, when it was taken up by protestors. False explanations for the term involve the gas masks worn by the riot police in that era, or the pigs in charge of George Orwell's Animal Farm.\n\nWhile police officers usually don't mind being called "cops," they aren't usually fond of the term "pig." A policeman's lot is not an 'appy one.
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A pig farm in India! I didn't know they 'did' pork there.
130007
Something to do with Lucky Charms and 'magically delicious', I think.
243058
I am sure you would find all that information from books at your nearest library, on the internet, golly gosh why not ask a pig farmer
70788
The story of the pig and Muhammad is nonsensical and lame.\n\nPigs are glutton. They eat everything. Is everything clean? Pigs are the most withstandable animal against bacteria and virus. Quite like walking vessels of bacteria.\n\nPigs are the sources of some terrible diseases like J.E. and avian flu (if not mistaken).\n\nSome may say that pigs are tasty. It is true based on the saying "Not all good things are sweet and not all bad things are bitter". \n\nNo matter what technique scientists do to make pigs safely edible, they will not accomplish that because zillions generations of pigs have lived and practised the glutton eating habits and made them super dangerous to consume and to have contact with them. \n\nPigs do breed super-fast. Even an offspring can give out birth just after two months (if not mistaken).  \n\nGod forbids men to eat pigs because of the above statements and maybe more to discovered. God knows best. However, we can eat pigs if there is no other choice of food or during very, very difficult times.
2083
One theory on the origin of this expression is that in ancient times nine was a lucky number because it is the Trinity of Trinities. As cats seem able to escape injury time and time again, this lucky number seemed suited to the cat. While in most countries the cat is said to have nine lives, in Arab and Turkish proverbs poor puss has a mere seven lucky lives and in Russia, is said to-survive nine deaths.
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Go to http://www.xanga.com/Pigs_of_Guinea
816174
Don't know anything about pigs, or is it a triple punt
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lucky numbers 79 53 72 92 91 92
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i didn't make it up but i always remember fondly my grandfather going to get a pig's eye (meat pie) for lunch and covering it with dead horse (tomato sauce)... love them
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[Q] “All my life I have heard the phrase a pig in a poke. Do you know where this phrase originated?”\n[A] Though the current version in full is “Don’t buy a pig in a poke”, don’t buy or accept something without first checking or assessing it, it’s first recorded in London around 1530 in a form intended to be good advice to honourable traders: “When ye proffer the pigge open the poke”, but its best known early appearance is in John Heywood’s A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the proverbes in the Englishe tongue of 1546 (a title usually and with good reason abbreviated to Proverbs), where it appears in the form “Though he love not to buy the pig in the poke”. About 1555, Heywood included it in his other famous compilation work, Epigrammes, in the almost modern form “I will never bye the pig in the poke”.\nMany Americans know a poke as a small bag or sack, which it was also in Heywood’s day (a usage that has survived in Scotland). A poke, for example, was a suitable container into which to stuff a piglet for sale in the local market.\nThe proverb encapsulates that wise advice to purchasers of goods, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware—always inspect the goods before you pay for them. Make the seller open his poke and show you the pig within.\nIncidentally, the proverb has its direct counterparts in other languages, as in the Swedish Köp inte grisen i säcken! However, in other languages it refers to cats, as in French: Acheter chat en poche (“To buy a cat in a pouch”), and German: Die Katze im Sack kaufen (“To buy a cat in a sack”). Why the expressions in these languages refer to cats and not pigs supports a link with another expression, to let the cat out of the bag.