The British are notorious for their peculiar traditions. One that’s recently seen a much deserved resurgence in popularity is the Lemon Pig.

The Lemon Pig is exactly what it sounds like—a pig made out of a lemon. This delightful lil guy is typically given cloves for eyes and toothpicks for legs, and a twist of tin foil for a curly tail. When they’re made at the start of each year, the lemon pig is given a coin to hold in its mouth, symbolising wealth and prosperity for the year ahead. At the end of the year, a new lemon pig is made and the coin is ceremoniously passed from the old pig to the new one.

Like many whimsical customs, lemon pigs can be traced back to Victorian England, where they were a simple children’s craft, or as an amusing way to serve fruit cocktail. The tradition captured modern attention in 2017 when Anna Pallai, author of 70s Dinner Party: The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly of Retro Food, tweeted a snapshot from an 1971 book on entertaining, featuring a daft looking “lemon piglet for good luck in the New Year!”

The book turned out to be 401 Party and Holiday Ideas by aluminium company Alcoa, designed to show off their foil. While lemon pigs had appeared elsewhere in books and newspapers as a fun children’s craft, they weren’t originally tied to any holiday. As one source notes, “No other lemon pigs were lucky or had a New Year’s association—the authors of 401 Party and Holiday Ideas probably added that part themselves.”

To be fair to Alcoa, pigs themselves have been a symbol of good luck through most of Europe and China since the middle ages, so there is a connection. Glücksschwein (literally “good luck pig”) are little marzipan pigs given as gifts at New Year throughout Germany and Austria, and many cultures eat pork on New Years’ Day to bring them longevity.

As far as traditions go, the story of the lemon pig is pretty great. What started as a simple children’s craft became a (slightly tenuous) ad for tin foil in a decades-old book, and then, thanks to social media, became a modern-day superstition sensation that feels like it’s always belonged.

Now that’s marketing.

(Did I know this when I named my marketing business Lemon Pig Studios? Er…yeah. Totally.)