I am not aware of any rule about who goes first in this divination, but it seems reasonable to speculate it may have gone in age order, either from oldest to youngest, or from youngest to oldest. Of course, have everyone wash their hands before you begin. Start with a group prayer or invocation asking for accurate results for all participants, as once the action starts, it goes fairly quickly. I’m a big believer in doing the grab with the less-dominant hand, as that is the receptive hand. Do not be touchy-feely or slow about this. You aren’t supposed to be shopping for a cookie here. The point is to reach under the cover and quickly grab the first cookie that hits your fingers, without thinking about it.
If you have enough cookies on hand, and few enough participants, you may want to invite the participants to go through a second, or even a third round of cookie selection in order to more fully flesh-out what they may expect in the time period covered. This was traditionally practiced as a New Year’s custom, but you may want to practice it bi-annually, quarterly, or on anniversaries. Then the time period covered by the fortune could be taken to apply from the occasion to a set point in time.
If you want to try ‘Lucky Grabs’ and you don’t live near a bakery which caters to this ethnic tradition, your options are three:
Option One
…Is the traditional one—bake your own. This is probably how this divination method started, anyway. A cursory search of the Internet, using the search-term ‘cookie-cutter shapes’ can yield a mind-boggling variety of cookie-cutters for sale, beyond the normal holiday shapes available in stores. If you want to take up regular practice of this divination method, you might want to augment the normal holiday shapes you’d find in a store with some unusual ones found on-line. What follows is a list of cookie cutters I’ve seen and their possible meanings:
Airplane-you will fly somewhere this year, either for pleasure, business, or some other reason…
Apple-associated with harvest time, school, temptation, and choice.
Boat-smooth-sailing this year. You may take up a water-related pastime this year, or take a memorable trip on or by water.
Bow-A gift comes to you this year, tied up in a nice, fancy ribbon.
Broom-‘a new broom sweeps clean.’ You may sweep something out of your life this year, or undertake a major house-cleaning of some sort. Or, you secure a spot on your university’s Quidditch team.
Bunny-a fertility symbol, either children or great creativity. Associated also with Easter and spring, it could refer to something important to happen in your life around then.
Cane-normally seen as a candy cane, this cookie could be a reference to the following Christmas—it may also be a reference to deteriorating health; either having to use a cane temporarily, following an accident, or an older relative hits that time in life where they must walk with a cane. A reminder of advancing age and passing time may come to you this year.
Car-a long car trip, an important car trip, or the purchase of a new vehicle may be in the cards this year.