White rabbit!

February 1, 2006 2:19 PM

First words on the first of the month: "White Rabbit" or "Rabbit, Rabbit(, Rabbit)"?

I was just talking to a co-worker and when I asked her if today was the first of the month she said, "Yep, I said 'rabbit, rabbit' this morning!"

I gave her a kind of dumb look for a few seconds before my brain dusted off a bunch of elementary school memories of saying "white rabbit" on the first of every month. I finally understood what she was talking about, but I clearly remembered "white rabbit" and not "rabbit rabbit".

Googling turned up this page, with a few somewhat old (1920's and 1950's) references of each, but I can't find the history of these traditions anywhere (I even tried, and failed, at Wikipedia).

Any Ask-Mefites know more about why people say this, and which is more common? Now I'm really curious.

posted by ducksauce to society & culture (52 comments total)

The first and only time I've heard of this was in the Jawbreaker song. Not much help, sorry.
posted by sohcahtoa at 2:21 PM on February 1, 2006

I've been saying rabbit rabbit for years. The exact origin is apparently unknown, but I think that it came to great popularity among webloggers when Heather Powazek Champ started using it to begin her posts each month on Harrumph! (her short explanation can be found here, and you can find the Wiki here).
posted by mewithoutyou at 2:27 PM on February 1, 2006

I think I learned this from Heather Champ... I'll do some checking. I learned it as "rabbit, rabbit."
posted by o2b at 2:28 PM on February 1, 2006

Yes, this is where I learned it.

I have no idea where it originated if not there.
posted by o2b at 2:29 PM on February 1, 2006

doh.
posted by o2b at 2:29 PM on February 1, 2006

Well I can add a UK vote for white rabbit going back 15-20 years...
posted by nthdegx at 2:31 PM on February 1, 2006

I remember reading it as "Rabbit, rabbit" in one of the old kids books by E. Nesbit -- can't remember if it was one of the ones with the Psammead or the one with the Phoenix, but those were published between 1902 and 1905, at any rate. Why I remember this, I have no idea.
posted by Gator at 2:34 PM on February 1, 2006

The wikipedia article makes almost no mention of "white rabbit" (except as being counterpart to other practices), but most of the external links contain the term. How confusing... I guess it's not too easy to research the origins of superstitions, huh?
posted by ducksauce at 2:43 PM on February 1, 2006

Oops, disregard my above comment -- I did some "search inside"-ing at Amazon, and it turns out I was thinking of Magic by the Lake, which was published much later (1957). /blush
posted by Gator at 2:48 PM on February 1, 2006

I vote for "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit." Goes back over 10 years easily.
posted by booksandlibretti at 2:59 PM on February 1, 2006

New and improved comment! Now with extra links!

Some info here (if you can ignore the rotten design). Rabbits and luck (from globalpsychics.com, so, uh, bear that in mind). Some people talking about it (new theories, but just anecdotal).

There's an album called Rabbit Rabbit. And a poem written by Ariane Aurelia Anne, who sounds about five and whose parents obviously hate her.

This is probably the best explanation -- at least, it's the best I've seen. Also, the word "rabbit" has just become meaningless and weird to me. Thanks a lot.
posted by booksandlibretti at 3:09 PM on February 1, 2006

White rabbit in my (Canadian) family, going back to at least the 50s.
posted by acoutu at 3:13 PM on February 1, 2006

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.
posted by languagehat at 3:15 PM on February 1, 2006

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. Going back at least 70 years in my family, if not longer...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 3:23 PM on February 1, 2006

Rabbit rabbit, but not sure where I got that from...
posted by purplefiber at 3:28 PM on February 1, 2006

Wow this is the first I've heard of it. All the kids at my school did was an obnoxious "pinch-and-a-punch for a new-new-month"
posted by pantsrobot at 3:36 PM on February 1, 2006

My mother always said "rabbits rabbits rabbits, hares hares hares."
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 3:40 PM on February 1, 2006

I don't know anything about a first of the month tradition, but I understand you say "white rabbit" to chase away smoke blowing in your face from a campfire, so you don't have to get up and move to the other side.
posted by samh23 at 3:40 PM on February 1, 2006

UK btw
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 3:41 PM on February 1, 2006

"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit", right after midnight (you stayed up) among the staff at the YMCA camp I worked at between 1977 and 1980. They said it was for luck.

Campers didn't do it, though.
posted by QIbHom at 3:57 PM on February 1, 2006

In school and family settings, it always used to be "Pinch, punch, first of the month, no returns" (i.e. not allowed to strike back) as you pinched and punched someone unless "white rabbit" was called.

I'm guessing that was a very local variation though...
posted by djgh at 4:04 PM on February 1, 2006

"Rabbit, rabbit" according to my mother. I remembered to say it this morning, yay me!
posted by ottereroticist at 4:06 PM on February 1, 2006

I've never heard of this... I grew up in Northern California, and I remember absolutely no rituals associated with the beginning of a month.... rabbit or otherwise.

I wonder how on earth that got started?
posted by Malor at 4:09 PM on February 1, 2006

It was always "White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits" for my buddy Lindsay in 1980s Glasgow. He went on to hold the world RC jet air speed record, so it must've worked for him.

We did have a new english kid at school who tried the "A Pinch and a Punch for the First of the Month" thing. He received a savage Scottish beating for his trouble, and never did it again.
posted by scruss at 4:32 PM on February 1, 2006

samh23, that's funny, someone just last weekend told me to say "I hate rabbits" to chase smoke away. I had never heard such a thing before.
posted by amarynth at 5:00 PM on February 1, 2006

My UK-born mother had all of us sons saying "White Rabbits" the first thing to the first person you spoke to every first of the month. I still do it.
posted by neustile at 5:02 PM on February 1, 2006

Never heard of this. [Grew up in Northeastern Ohio.]
posted by ubersturm at 5:03 PM on February 1, 2006

I've been doing it wrong all these years, then, as I though it was "rabbits, rabbits, rabbits," plural.
posted by frogan at 5:12 PM on February 1, 2006

yep, we said it to get the campfire smoke to go away...I heard both "white rabbit, white rabbit", "rabbits, rabbits, rabbits", and "I hate rabbits"

I never heard anything about this first of the month thing, though...and I'm a sucker for superstitious good luck charms.
posted by dan g. at 5:20 PM on February 1, 2006

Okay, I have never heard of this.

In my family, though, we do lick our thumbs, press it into our other palm, then make a fist and smack it into that palm when we see a robin. I have no idea why.
posted by dpx.mfx at 5:36 PM on February 1, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

damnit, all this talk of games made me lose the game.
posted by tiamat at 5:43 PM on February 1, 2006

I seem to remember a variation of saying "rabbit" immediately before you went to sleep on the last day of the month and then again as soon as you got up in the morning, and I'm pretty sure it was detailed in this book.

I also recall seeing the "rabbit, rabbit" variety on Nickelodeon sometime during the early- to mid-nineties as one of their "bumps" on the first day of every month. I always wondered why they didn't do it the day before, if it was supposed to be a reminder to say it.

Oddly, I said "rabbit, rabbit" myself this morning for the first time in years.
posted by kyleg at 5:56 PM on February 1, 2006

I lost too, tiamat. First time in months.
posted by malp at 6:14 PM on February 1, 2006

One pill makes you larger / And one pill makes you small.
posted by zerolives at 7:24 PM on February 1, 2006

I recollect no month-starting rituals in Missouri or Oklahoma.

I conducted a survey of friends of mine on AIM. The question was "do you say any variation on white rabbit at the beginning of the month?".

I received negatory responses from all responders in rural and urban PA, rural and suburban MO, and several unknown hometowns. Instead, they responded with confusion.

There were some excellent positive responses, however. Here they are. (Names and identifying information removed.)

This from male/Seattle:

(22:22:34) AngstKlr: do you say any variation on "white rabbit" at the beginning of the month?
(22:22:45) XXXX: ha
(22:23:08) AngstKlr: what does that mean?
(22:23:24) XXXX: i learned in 3rd grade that you are supposed to say it 3 times b4 anything else and touch all 4 corners of your bed...
(22:23:31) XXXX: then it will bring you good luck

This from female/Weston, MA:

(22:24:24) AngstKlr: random question: do you say any variation on "white rabbit" at the beginning of the month?
(22:27:54) XXXX: lol
(22:27:57) XXXX: rabbit rabbit
(22:28:03) XXXX: only when i remember
(22:28:04) XXXX: which is rare
(22:28:05) AngstKlr: nice! thanks!
[Personal conversation redacted.]
(22:28:49) XXXX: the rabbit thing?
(22:28:54) XXXX: it supposed to give you good luck
(22:28:59) AngstKlr: that's what I hear.
(22:29:02) AngstKlr: where did you learn it?
(22:29:10) XXXX: i heard about it from one of my best friends when we were young...i'd say eleven or so

This from female/Nashville, TN:

(22:26:16) AngstKlr: do you say any variation on "white rabbit" at the beginning of the month?
(22:26:30)XXXX: I say "rabbit rabbit"

posted by Netzapper at 7:49 PM on February 1, 2006

I don't know where I got this from, but the version I heard was "bunny bunny" before going to bed on the last night of the month, then "rabbit rabbit" upon waking on the 1st.
posted by ArsncHeart at 8:18 PM on February 1, 2006

I've always heard it as "rabbit, rabbit."
posted by Amanda B at 8:24 PM on February 1, 2006

I read it (saying "rabbit rabbit" as the first words out of your mouth on the 1st) as a kid, in a magazine put out by the kids' TV channel Nickelodeon.
posted by Monochrome at 8:45 PM on February 1, 2006

Grew up in BC, always said "White rabbit."
posted by Felicity Rilke at 8:57 PM on February 1, 2006

My mom told me to say "rabbit rabbit rabbit" and she's over 70 so it's an old tradition. (NYC)
I rarely remember to say it.

On the other hand, when I was very young I decided on my own that it would be good luck to always howl at a full moon, and I never forget that one. One day, I will be arrested.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:58 PM on February 1, 2006

"Rabbit rabbit."
posted by jenovus at 9:10 PM on February 1, 2006

To discourage campfire smoke: "I love bunnies/rabbits"

On the first of the month: "Rabbit Rabbit"
posted by stray at 9:24 PM on February 1, 2006

From my mother, who is from NW England, I learned "white rabbit."
posted by sueinnyc at 9:58 PM on February 1, 2006

My mother always says "Rabbit Rabbit," and we're from New England. The superstition about chasing the smoke away from your face was "Dead Bunnies" at Girl Scout Camp in Massachusetts.
posted by Uccellina at 10:40 PM on February 1, 2006

Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits.

And I always forget to say it.

I should really program something into my phone or whatever to remind me.
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:31 AM on February 2, 2006

My New England family says "rabbit rabbit" and claims you're supposed to walk down the stairs backwards.
posted by themadjuggler at 3:44 AM on February 2, 2006

You have to to walk down the stairs backwards if you forget to say it.

(My wife is from Massachusetts; I never knew about this until I met her.)
posted by languagehat at 5:59 AM on February 2, 2006

In Michigan where I grew up, we said "Rabbit rabbit rabbit" as we walked down the stairs in the morning. (Forwards, though — thank goodness. If I had to walk downstairs backwards before I had my coffee, there's no way I'd have lived this long.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:19 AM on February 2, 2006

My roommate used to say "Rabbits!"
posted by rxrfrx at 8:05 AM on February 2, 2006

"Rabbits rabbits" here in the UK, going back at least as far as my middle-aged mother can remember.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 8:43 AM on February 2, 2006

yep, "rabbit, rabbit." family tradition, not sure where it came from.
posted by mattwatson at 10:49 AM on February 2, 2006

Never heard this one, but to make campfire smoke blow the other way, we always said "dead rabbits dead rabbits dead rabbits" until it shifted.

Always works, too. :)
posted by GriffX at 1:12 PM on February 2, 2006