My children who have azorean godparents were all given the little hand when they were babies. I was told it was called a "figa" (that is a phonetic spelling). It is to ward of the evil eye and those who would try to put a curse on you. Anyone who has relatives born in the Azores knows that there were and are a lot of superstitions. It is believed that there are people who will go up to a baby and say how beautiful they are and at same time place a curse on them that can only be removed some woman in the village with a special power. This figa is somehow supposed to protect them from that. I guess it is supposed to work the same way for adults also. In a nutshell it is to keep a person safe from curses. Mary Ann
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