What people say
Finding one brings luck; the leaves stand for faith, hope, love and luck.Luck · 520 searches a month
Four-leaf clover
Four-leaf clover: finding one brings luck; the leaves stand for faith, hope, love and luck. First recorded in 1620s in English sources, it is about 406 years old — the 24th oldest of the 40 superstitions we have dated. The odds are genuinely about 1 in 5 000, so finding one is unusual — but people who find one often find several, because the trait clusters in patches sharing a root system.
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
1620s in English sources
That makes it
about 406 years old
Rank by age
24 oldest of 40 dated here
Category
Luck
Searched
520 a month
Rarity is the entire basis, and here the rarity is real and measurable — roughly one clover in five thousand has four leaves, caused by a recessive genetic trait and environmental stress.
What is going on
The odds are genuinely about 1 in 5 000, so finding one is unusual — but people who find one often find several, because the trait clusters in patches sharing a root system.Where it applies. Irish and British in origin, now global.
Other luck superstitions
Recorded around the same time
Four-leaf clover is the 24th oldest of the 40 dated superstitions here. Of those, 6 are younger than a century and 5 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →