Pan-Cultural items related to good luck and good fortune!

The peoples of India and China share a belief that Elephants are lucky creatures. Placed on shelves or by doorways they endure luck and longevity. Some people believe that stroking the trunk of a household elephant statue ensures success in business or on a journey. In China elephant statues are often made of jade, thought to have its own luck providing powers.

Elephants may have garnered their reputation for magic powers from a number of sources. They are large and powerful, intelligent, useful, and long-lived and so have become a symbols of strength, wisdom, happiness, and longevity. They are religious symbols in the Hindu faith. The birth of Buddha was announced by a white elephant and Ganesha is an elephant-headed god of wisdom and path-clearing. Chinese Buddhists believe in a folklore being (Guan Yin) who dresses in white and rides an elephant. Guan Yin helps in time of need and represents charity and pity. The Chinese also have a saying that equates to happiness: "To ride an elephant." In Sri Lanka, crawling under an elephant's belly protects you from "bad planetary effects" and the evil eye while driving away fears.

There is dispute about which way a lucky elephant holds its trunk, but there is a general belief in many eastern cultures that an elephant with the trunk pointed up "stores" luck and one with the trunk down "dispenses" it.

Give the trunk of a Luck Factory elephant a stroke whenever you feel you need a little extra help when negotiating a deal, taking a test, starting your day, or to add happiness and longevity to your household.