Wishing on an eyelash
Wishing on an eyelash is a custom in which a stray lash is blown away with a wish. Very often the wish starts with someone else, who spots the lash on your face and holds it out for you.
What it may mean
You almost never see your own stray eyelash. Someone across the table sees it, reaches over and holds it out to you so you can wish on it. Many of the eyelash customs collected by folklore students start this way, with another person's attention. In a game a woman learned at a girls' school in Jordan, a friend pinches the lash between two fingers and you must guess which finger holds it before your wish can count. A man from St. Louis remembered his mother grabbing every lost lash and setting it on the back of his fist. The wish belongs to you, but the moment is shared, and it depends on someone looking at your face closely enough to notice something that small. Few gestures say as plainly that a person is paying attention.
Depending on how you saw it
Guessing which finger
In several versions, the finder holds the lash between thumb and finger and asks you to guess which side it clings to; guess right and the wish is yours. Who do you let make small decisions for you, just for the fun of it?
On the back of a fist
A St. Louis man's mother set every stray lash on the back of her child's fist and told him to wish, and he still does it the same way decades later. Which tiny gesture of a parent's comes back to you through your own hands?
Sending it off with a breath
In the St. Louis and Menlo Park versions the lash is blown away once the wish is made, and a 1903 collection adds that a lash that clings to the hand means the wish will not be fulfilled. Which wish of yours will only count once you let go of it?
Why it happens in nature
Eyelashes are shed and regrow one at a time, so a few stray lashes turn up on cheeks and sleeves on an ordinary day. They are hard to see on your own face and easy to see on someone else's, which is why the custom so often involves a second person.
What folk beliefs say
Jordan
At an all-girls school in Jordan, girls played an eyelash wishing game: a friend who spots a fallen lash near your eye asks you to wish and guess which eye, or which of her fingers holds the lash, and a right guess makes the wish come true.
Source: B-Rad (collector), Eyelash wishing game – Arabic Children's Folk Game (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2021), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
United States (Missouri)
A man raised in St. Louis, Missouri, remembered his mother putting any fallen eyelash on the back of her child's fist and saying "Make a wish!"; he still puts his own lost lashes on his hand, wishes and blows them away.
Source: cniemann (collector), Eyelashes (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2016), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
United States (California)
A woman from Menlo Park, California, was taught by her mother to hold a found eyelash between pointer finger and thumb, guess whether it will be on the top or the bottom, and blow it away with a wish if the guess is right.
Source: Gabrielle Vella (collector), Wishing on an Eyelash (Top or Bottom Fingers) (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2026), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
To reflect on
Who is close enough to notice the small things on your face, and when did they last tell you?