How locks have played a role in religion

A mix of superstitious and religious history relating to the subject of keys

Right then, how the devil are you? I’m okay thanks for asking, touch wood. Nearly walked under a ladder earlier, but narrowly avoided that, thank goodness, and have dodged all the cracks in the pavement so far today. Almost had the nightmare of eating 13 biscuits, but realised in time and made it to a solid 14. Not that I’m superstitious at all… *crosses fingers*.

That preamble brings us to the subject of today’s blog… a mix of superstitious and religious history relating to the subject of keys. It felt appropriate in the lead up to Easter, and will serve to divert attention away from the annual reminder that the Easter weekend brings of the poor security arrangements on show at the tomb, that allowed Jesus to escape. A couple of solid doors and some strong anti-snap locks conforming to BS3621 standards and he’d really have been in bother. Well, he probably wouldn’t have been in that much trouble, being the son of God and all, but at least it would have saved the Roman locksmith’s blushes, as he could have reassured his bosses that he’d done his bit.

Keys and religion

Speaking of Jesus, as seems appropriate for Easter, let’s turn our attention to the seat of the Catholic Church in the Vatican City. And I bet that’s not a sentence you expected to read on one of my blogs. But, you know, sometimes there’s more to people than first meets the eye.

The Vatican City, as I’m assuming we all know, is the Pope’s place of residence, should you ever want to send him an Easter card, or a query about the upkeep of the popemobile. The City state with the lowest birth rate in the world – ostensibly zero, trivia fans, has its own coat of arms, illustrated on the left. It bears strong similarity to the rarely used coat of arms of the Holy See, being almost a mirror image of the latter, and consists of two upturned keys of gold and silver, crossing each other diagonally, beneath a fancy tiara, covered in jewels.

What do the keys represent?

“But what do these keys represent?” I can hear you asking. And if you’re not asking that, just play along for the purposes of this paragraph. After all, I put at least ten minutes research into this. The keys in the coat of arms represent the keys of heaven entrusted to the disciple Peter. The bible tells us that Christ said to him: “I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The colours of the keys are important too – the gold key is said to symbolise the power of the kingdom of heaven, whereas the silver one is a symbol of the authority of the Pope and the papacy on Earth. The keys cross and are bound together with cord and this corresponds to the Catholic Church’s belief of the strong bond between the powers of heaven and earth. The key handles are at the bottom of the emblem – supposedly this represents the fact that the Pope has the power on earth, although how often he reaches up to grab them, who knows!

Swapping religions for a moment – we’re a multi faith church here – and let’s have a quick look at an old tradition within Judaism. In my research, I came across the fact that when Jewish mothers were in labour, it used to be the case that their midwives would place a key in their hand as they came close to giving birth. The thinking behind this superstition was that the key would help unlock the child and result in a safe delivery of the baby into the world.

How they store keys in Eastern Europe

From religion to more general superstition now, and keys still make an appearance. In Eastern Europe you may notice that in some bedrooms there is a key hanging upside down above the bed. This is due to a long held superstition that keys can deliver good dreams to the person sleeping below it, and also help to keep the bad dreams out. A word of caution however – if you decide to copy this tradition, make sure the key is securely fixed to the wall. I don’t want to be responsible for all manner of head injuries when keys start dropping from walls in South Yorkshire.

Buried with keys

Just a brief diversion to the subject of death to cheer us all up. Superstition and death are frequently related, and this was no different in the ancient region of Ionia – part of the western coast of Anatolia in present-day Turkey. In Ionia, corpses would be buried alongside an iron key. This was thought to help the dead to unlock the door to the Underworld. One hopes that security arrangements to the afterlife are not too convoluted and that just the one key would do – I don’t fancy having to be faffing about with deadlocks and security chains whilst six feet under.

Wearing keys around your neck

Back to life now, and in Japan it is common to see the population wearing charms comprising three keys joined together. These are also made into decorations for the home. The three keys are supposedly able to unlock the secrets of wisdom, life and love. If I could get proof of that and make it part of my business, I’d make a fortune!

That’s almost all for the superstition and religion now, apart from to wish you all a happy Easter.