Schwein gehabt! No pig for Robin Hood
Switzerland
This past weekend, I played Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood — an isometric, stealth-based real-time tactics video game released in the early 2000s — for nostalgic reasons.
Oldie but goodie: Screenshot from the game showing Robin Hood participating in a shooting competition to win the silver arrow and a kiss from Maid Marian
One of the game missions involves Robin Hood participating in an archery competition that was organized to smoke the expert marksman himself out. As the story goes, Robin wins the competition, steals the prizes, and comes away unscathed.
Earlier this year, Swiss Post released a stamp at CHF 1.00 called “Glücksschwein” or “Lucky Pig”, featuring an illustration of a smiling, pink pig munching on a four-leaf clover, complete with curly tail.
It is not the four-leaf clover that makes this pig lucky — that symbol has Celtic origins. Instead, in Switzerland and German-speaking regions, the pig is a symbol of good luck. In fact, when people get lucky, Germans say: “Schwein gehabt!”, literally “have pig!” This idiom is believed to have its roots in medieval custom. In traditional Schützenfest competitions (translated as the Marksmen's Fest), the winner gets crowned Schützenkönig, or King of the Marksmen while the worst-performing participant was not only ridiculed, but often also received a suckling pig as a consolation prize. This is considered lucky, however, as pigs were very valuable those days: they did not require expensive fodder, produced lots of offspring, and were quickly ready for slaughter.
According to the Swiss Post, this self-adhesive stamp is actually soft to the touch and has a velvety surface that really makes you want to stroke the happy pink pig.
To give the stamp its softness, the paper first had to be sprinkled with soft particles before being printed.
This is a process called flocking: very fine cellulose fibres (called flock) with special gum are sprayed onto the stamp paper to create a soft, smooth velvety textured feel to the surface.
But Robin Hood isn’t German! He isn’t, that’s why he helps himself to the King’s deer.
Source: Classics Illustrated, No. 7
References
“New stamps with soft touch too.” Swiss Post, 5 March 2019, https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2019/new-stamps-with-soft-touch-too
Breitenbach, Dagmar. “Is your pig whistling? Quirky German idioms featuring pigs.” DW Akademie, Deutsche Welle, 4 February 2019, https://www.dw.com/en/is-your-pig-whistling-quirky-german-idioms-featuring-pigs/a-47124979
The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages. New York: Dutton, 1975, pp. 208 - 209.
Anonymous. Robin Hood (Classics Illustrated, No. 7). New York, 1947-c.1955, pp. 45.