Rabbit rabbit rabbit: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:38, 10 October 2023

Revision as of 12:49, 3 November 2023

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==Origins and history==

The exact origin of the superstition is unknown, though it was recorded in ''[[Notes and Queries]]'' as being said by children in 1909:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Simpson |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Roud |first2=Stephen|author-link2=Steve Roud |title=A Dictionary of English Folklore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTcdvd1iRXsC |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780192100191 |via=Google Books}} Citing ''[[Notes and Queries]]'' 10s:11 (1909), 208</ref>

{{blockquote|My two daughters are in the habit of saying "Rabbits!" on the first day of each month. The word must be spoken aloud, and be the first word said in the month. It brings luck for that month. Other children, I find, use the same formula.}}

In response to this note another contributor said that his daughter believed that the outcome would be a present, and that the word must be spoken up the chimney to be most effective; another pointed out that the word ''rabbit'' was often used in expletives, and suggested that the superstition may be a survival of the ancient belief in swearing as a means of avoiding evil.<ref>{{cite book |title=Notes and Queries |url=https://archive.org/details/s10notesqueries11londuoft |series=10 |volume=11 |year=1909 |publisher=John C. Francis and J. Edward Francis |___location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/s10notesqueries11londuoft/page/208 208], 258}} Citing [https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi05wrig ''The English Dialect Dictionary''] (1905) Vol. 5, p. 2.</ref> People continue to express curiosity about the origins of this superstition<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dendritics.com/scales/one-rabbit.asp |title=Everyone's Rabbitings |website=Dendritics Gemscales Museum |access-date=14 February 2016}}</ref> and draw upon it for inspiration in making calendars<ref>{{cite web |url=http://viewers-like-you.com/rabbit-rabbit |title=Viewers Like You: A Design Concern of Elsner and Shields |date=1 January 2015 |access-date=14 February 2016 |archive-date=9 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009213714/http://viewers-like-you.com/rabbit-rabbit |url-status=dead }}</ref> suggestive of the [[Labors of the Months]], thus linking the ''rabbit rabbit'' superstition to seasonal fertility.

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{{blockquote|Trixie Belden awoke slowly, with the sound of a summer rain beating against her window. She half-opened her eyes, stretched her arms above her head, and then, catching sight of a large sign tied to the foot of her bed, yelled out, "Rabbit! Rabbit!" She bounced out of bed and ran out of her room and down the hall. "I've finally done it!" she cried [...] "Well, ever since I was Bobby's age I've been trying to remember to say 'Rabbit! Rabbit!' and make a wish just before going to sleep on the last night of the month. If you say it again in the morning, before you've said another word, your wish comes true." Trixie laughed.}}

In the United States, the tradition appears especially well known in northern [[New England]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/marysfarm/rabbit#_ |title=Saying Rabbit, Rabbit - The Luck of the English |author=Edie Clark |author-link=Edie Clark|work=Yankee |access-date=1 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wdea.am/the-first-of-the-month-brings-the-luck-of-the-rabbit/ |title=The First of the Month Brings the Luck of the Rabbit |author=Chris Popper |date=30 September 2012 |publisher=WDEA Ellsworth, Maine |access-date=1 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/did-you-know-rabbit-rabbit/ |title=Did You Know? (Rabbit, Rabbit) |date=1 December 2011 |work=[[Good Morning Gloucester]] |access-date=1 February 2015}}</ref> although, like all folklore, determining its exact area of distribution is difficult. The superstition may be related to the broader belief in the rabbit or hare being a "lucky" animal, as exhibited in the practice of carrying a [[rabbit's foot]] for luck.<ref> {{cite book |last1=Panati |first1=Charles |title=Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hI9Weq6q9dEC | access-date = 2 April 2013 |isbn=978-0060964191}}</ref> Rabbits have not always been thought of as lucky, however. In the 19th century, for example, fishermen would not say the word while at sea;<ref>{{cite journal |author=F. T. E. |editor=P. F. S. Amery |title=Fourteenth Report of the Devonshire Committee on Folklore |journal=Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association |year=1896 |volume=28 |page=95}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hewett |first=Sarah |title=Nummits and Crummits |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029890724 |publisher=Thomas Burleigh |___location=London |year=1900 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924029890724/page/n75 58]}}</ref> in South [[Devon]], to see a white rabbit in one's village when a person was very ill was regarded as a sure sign that the person was about to die.<ref>{{cite journal |author=S. G. H. |editor=F. T. Elworthy |title=Eighth Report of the Devonshire Committee on Folklore |journal=Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association |year=1885 |volume=17 |page=124}}</ref>

During the mid-1990s, the American children's [[Cable television|cable]] channel [[Nickelodeon]] helped popularize the superstition in the United States as part of its "Nick Days", where during commercial breaks, it would show an ad about the significance of the current date, whether it be an actual holiday, a largely uncelebrated unofficial holiday, or a made-up day if nothing else is going on that specific day (the latter would be identified as a "Nickelodeon holiday"). Nickelodeon would promote the last day of each month as "Rabbit Rabbit Day" and to remind kids to say it the next day, unless the last day of that specific month was an actual holiday, such as [[Halloween]] or [[New Year's Eve]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Rose |first=Penny |url=http://www.thecheekybunny.com/2010/12/rabbit-rabbit-day.html |title=Rabbit Rabbit Day!! |publisher=The Cheeky Bunny |date=1 December 2010 |access-date=16 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116191100/http://www.thecheekybunny.com/2010/12/rabbit-rabbit-day.html |archive-date=16 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=AJ |last1=Willingham |access-date=1 September 2020 |title=Rabbit rabbit! Why people say this good-luck phrase at the beginning of the month |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/us/rabbit-rabbit-first-day-of-the-month-good-luck-trnd/index.html |website=CNN |date=July 2019}}</ref> This practice stopped by the late 1990s.

==In other traditions==

There is another folk tradition whichthat may use a variation of "Rabbit", "Bunny", "I hate/love Grey Rabbits" or "White Rabbit" to ward off smoke that the wind is directing into your face when gathered around a campfire.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://folklore.usc.edu/i-hate-white-rabbits/ |title=I Hate White Rabbits &#124; USC Digital Folklore Archives}}</ref> It is thought that this tradition may be related to the traditionpractice of invoking the rabbit on the first of the month. Others conjecture that it may originate with a North American [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|First Nation]] story about smoke resembling rabbit fur. This tradition may be more of a social tradition in a group setting than a genuine belief that certainspecific words will change the wind direction, and may be more of a childhood tradition than an adult one. Children have sometimes adapted from Rabbit to "Pink Elephant" or other comical derivatives.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/d6eki/what_did_you_do_as_a_kid_when_campfire_smoke_blew/ |title=r/AskReddit - What did you do as a kid when campfire smoke blew into your face? Did you say something? |website=reddit |date=28 August 2010}}</ref> Because of this more mutable usage, the historical record of this is even more scarce than other more static meanings.

==Variants==

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As with most [[folklore]], which is traditionally spread by word of mouth, there are numerous variants of the superstition, in some casessometimes specific to a certain time period or region.

* "When I was a very little boy I was advised to always murmur 'White rabbits' on the first of every month if I wanted to be lucky. From sheer force of unreasoning habit I do it still—when I think of it. I know it to be preposterously ludicrous, but that does not deter me." – Sir Herbert Russell, 1925.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000329/19250710/034/0004 |title=On Superstition. Life's Fancies and Fantasies |last=Russell |first=Sir Herbert |date=10 July 1925 |work=The Western Morning News and Mercury |page=4|access-date=25 April 2012 |___location=Plymouth and Exeter, [[Devon]]}} {{Subscription required}}</ref>

* "Even Mr. Roosevelt, the President of the United States, has confessed to a friend that he says 'Rabbits' on the first of every month—and, what is more, he would not think of omitting the utterance on any account." – newspaper article, 1935.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19351127/044/0010 |title=Strange Superstitions |date=27 November 1935 |work=The Nottingham Evening Post |page=10|access-date=25 April 2012}} {{Subscription required}}</ref>