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Adding short description: "Superstition pertaining to the first day of a month" (Shortdesc helper) |
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|access-date=2016-02-14}}</ref> suggestive of the [[Labors of the Months]], thus linking the ''rabbit rabbit'' superstition to seasonal fertility.
It appeared in a work of fiction in 1922:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lynd|first=Robert|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015048888161|title=Solomon in all his glory|date=1922|publisher=Grant Richards Ltd.|___location=London|pages=49|hdl=2027/mdp.39015048888161}}</ref>
<blockquote>"Why," the man in the brown hat laughed at him, "I thought everybody knew 'Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.' If you say 'Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'—three times, just like that—first thing in the morning on the first of the month, even before you say your prayers, you'll get a present before the end of the month."</blockquote>
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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.</blockquote>
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 |work=Yankee |access-date=February 1, 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=September 30, 2012 |publisher=WDEA Ellsworth, Maine |access-date=February 1, 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=December 1, 2011 |work=[[Good Morning Gloucester]] |access-date=February 1, 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
|author=F. T. E.
|editor=P. F. S. Amery
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}}</ref>
During the mid-1990s, [[United States|U.S.]] 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=2010-12-01 |access-date=2013-08-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116191100/http://www.thecheekybunny.com/2010/12/rabbit-rabbit-day.html |archive-date=2014-01-16 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first1=AJ |last1=Willingham |access-date=2020-09-01 |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 which may use a variation "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 | USC Digital Folklore Archives}}</ref> It is thought that this tradition may be related to the tradition of invoking the rabbit on the first of the month. Others conjecture that it may originate with a North American [[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 certain 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, historical record of this is even more scarce than other more static meanings.
As with all folklore, its truth is made evident even in its only occasional fulfillment: should the wind then appear to change direction, others will interpret the use of such an expression as evidence of its effectiveness and will then tend to adopt and repeat its use. That multiple instances of its ''in''effectiveness also exist is discounted in light of the "fact" that it appeared to work once.
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