Who never had a piggy-bank raise your arm! Far from here I can hardly see, but I guess no one had risen his arm. Those piggy-banks are definitely part of our culture. The use of the name “piggy-bank” came from its widely-recognized “pig” shape. They are used as pedagogical device to teach the rudiments of savings to children. Usually piggy-banks have no opening besides the slot, which leads to have to smash the piggy-bank to obtain the money within. But, who knows from where they are coming from? Here is the story of this lovely piggy-bank.
Piggy-banks are at first money-box. And those money-boxes haven’t always been pigs. Even before Christ, money-boxes were used under several aspects. Nevertheless they were generally made of ceramic or porcelain. It is where our pig-story may have come from. In English “pig” can mean the animal ,but also earthenware. Then, throw years “pig” can have been associated to the shape and no longer with the material it’s done with. Indeed, now we can find piggy-banks made of glass, plastic, plaster or whatever exits
Other explanations were also found, for instance, others ensure that this piggy-bank appeared during the 18th century. At that time, in the countryside, the possession of animals, and moreover pigs, meant affluence and sign of prosperity. The link between pigs and this idea of thrift is pretty easy. When you buy a piglet then you have to fatten him until it is full, and this cost your money and time. But then, your pig will give you food for a year, and there you will collect the fruit of your investment. It’s the exactly the same processus as when you save money in your piggy-bank, you have to wait until it’s full or until you get an accountable reason to smash it.
An other interesting story, about those piggy-banks, is coming from France, and exactly the southern-east region, PACA. There, they have an ancestral tradition, which consisted of using the uninterrupted pig appetite to hide small bags full of gold in their stomach. That way they were hiding their thrift and protect themselves from the taxes. Finally, they will just kill the pig to get their money back and the meat too. Other way to say it: they will eat their cake and have it too.
Pigs are, in a lot of countries, seemed as unclean, but we cannot hide the fact that it is really helpful to teach us the benefits of waiting and saving. Those piggy-banks are mostly addressed to children, but most of us, probably have forgotten their real significance and value, but it’s never too late to do so.
Watch out 