The ladybug stands for help arriving from above: unexpected luck and quiet blessings. One landing on you is said to bring good fortune, and folk custom counts its spots to foretell the months of luck ahead.
Medieval European farmers, watching aphids devour their crops, prayed to the Virgin Mary — and when these little beetles arrived and cleared the pests, they gratefully named them "Our Lady's birds." The German name Marienkäfer, Mary's beetle, springs from the same tradition.
The ladybug stands for help arriving from above: unexpected luck and quiet blessings. One landing on you is said to bring good fortune, and folk custom counts its spots to foretell the months of luck ahead.
A ladybug is luck you meet rather than carry, so custom says never brush one away — let it fly off on its own. In Europe its image remains a favorite good-luck motif on New Year cards and charms.