Crickets: The Dynasty

Everyone has seen the scene in Mulan where they talk about crickets being "good luck".

If you haven't…well, you're missing out on not only an interesting insect, but a great movie.

http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2013/02/22/disney-things-that-are-shorter-than-an-oscar/

I've always wondered about one scene that infers that crickets are lucky. It near the beginning of the movie.

I wanted to understand why one insect can affect such a thing as "luck"

In one scene at the beginning, "Grandma" talks about how crickets will bring good luck for Mulan at the matchmaker. She decides to test this by walking across a busy intersection with her eyes covered. When she gets across, she deems that "Cri-Kee" is lucky. I decided I wanted to know where this idea came from, and if cultures actually thought that crickets brought good luck.



 According to this webpage crickets can symbolize many things in different parts of the world.

 In China, crickets symbolize intelligence and luckiness.  If you harm a cricket, bad luck is supposed to be knocking at your door. During the Tang Dynasty, people started believing that the beautiful song made by male crickets should be heard by everyone. Thus they began caging them up.

Also in China, farmers can use crickets to tell when it is time to prepare their fields for harvesting.

In Barbados, if a cricket sings at a loud volume, then it is supposed to represent that money is coming to you, but if it is not a loud chirp, but a soft one, it represents illness and even death.

All of these places have different ways of interpreting what a single insect can mean. Most of these involve the chirp, which can only be made by the male cricket. It is made by one wing filing on the other. This is how they create their beautiful songs. This is also how they find mates. According to Evans, without their wings, it is probable that crickets would not be able to find mates without their songs that they produce.


I never knew so many ideas and beliefs could be formed off of one tiny insect. I definitely have a different outlook on how I view crickets after understanding their meaning and symbolism to all different parts of society in our world.



* All information and ideas were  gathered from the website linked, or either Life on a Little Known Planet, written by Howard Ensign Evans*

**All Rights Reserved to Disney for the motion picture Mulan and all related subjects**