Lucky Charms - Holy Cow!

Lucky charms, amulets, and such…They are magically delicious and often used by the superstitious (hehehe…I made a rhyme!).  I never considered myself one to believe in lucky charms and things of that sort, but after losing out on our fifth home offer, we were willing to try anything. 

Upon returning from her semester abroad in Peru, my youngest sister Judy brought Justin and I two little ceramic cows bulls.  Before she left she knew we were experiencing some frustrations with our home search.  We were continually striking out against buyers who offered waaaayyy over asking or investors that made all cash offers. Apparently these bulls can be found all over Peru on the people’s roofs.  They are said to bring good luck, fertility (Don’t get any ideas now, people!) and protection.  Since we live in 15-story apartment complex, we opted to keep our bulls in our room on the TV console and hoped that would suffice.   



Maybe we can construct a quasi-diorama for our bulls like this one complete with birds and miniature pots?

 


The bulls in their natural habitat J

 


The bulls in their “not-so natural” habitat next to our TV.



Upon further research I learned that these bulls were called, “torito de Pucará,” which I believe means “Bulls of Pucará.” I took four years of French so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!

According to Peru Travel & Tours,

“Pucará is a region in Peru famous for it's ceramic production, a tradition dating back at least 2500 years. The most famous of it's ceramic figurines are the Pucará bulls or toritos; which can be found on the roofs of houses to bring luck and fertility.”

I’m sure the Peruvian people probably never envisioned their lucky bulls to be used as a home-buying good luck charm!  Anyway, it was really cool learning about our little toritos and you can sure that they will have a place of honor in our new home.  Stay tuned because the “Toritos de Pucará” aren’t the only things we added to happy house-buying/good luck arsenal!

Sources:  Virtual Tourist, TravelPod, Peru Travel & Tours (photos)