I remembered to say “white rabbits” this morning as the first thing I said on this first day of the month! I forgot last month and my first words were either a disgruntled muttering to myself upon waking or telling an insistent cat who wanted to sit on my neck “no–move! Go away!”. That’s my general type of morning speech, since I don’t see another human until I get in to work. (As an aside, it would be interesting to track a day that I spent at home and see what, if anything, I did say . . . because I have no idea.)
Anyway, I read about this superstition on the Internet several years ago, and have been trying to do it ever since. Like one blogger, I thought the origins of the custom were Chinese, but as I’ve been reading around on the Internet, it seems to be otherwise. Other bloggers have mentioned this custom, but my favorite post about it is from a woman who tried for decades to remember to say “rabbit, rabbit” upon waking, and finally managed it. I’ll have to check her blog to see if she had a lucky month after all.
A little more background on the custom: It appears to have origins in England, which some people (perhaps too enthusiastically) attribute to either German or Druidic roots, but the first mentions of it that people have found appear to be around the time of WWII . . . however, folklore can be tricky, and perhaps the first mentions of it were around that time simply because that’s when there was radio available. The wiki on the subject is helpful, and I’ve found a couple other sites that have pulled together more white rabbit research.
A short breakdown of (what I think are) the more interesting variants on the custom:
- Saying “black rabbits” last thing before sleeping on the last day of the month and “white rabbits” first thing upon waking on the first day of the month
- Saying “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” or “rabbit, rabbit” upon waking (or “white rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit” or “white bunny rabbits”x3 or . . . so on)
- Being the first person to say “white rabbits” (or one of the other versions) to someone else–if you’re “tagged” like that you have to wait until the next month to get them back. Supposedly then you “steal” their luck for the month . . .
- Saying “bunny bunny” on the first day of February and “rabbit rabbit” on the first day of March (I think–anyway, it was supposed to be for two different months)
- Saying “tibbar, tibbar, tibbar” first thing after midnight on New Year’s
- SHOUTING “White Rabbits!” upon waking up
And ways to make up for forgetting to say it when you wake up, such as:
- Walking down the stairs backward
- Saying “tibbar, tibbar” (or the corresponding thing for what you should have said) last thing before sleeping on the first day of the month–is “stibbar etihw” pronounceable?)
- Walking down the stairs backward while saying “tibbar, tibbar, tibbar”
Now making up for forgetting it is a great thing, because invariably when I say “NO–go away!” I remember that I should have said “white rabbits” and wonder if it’s going to be an unlucky month. However, from now on I may make my own custom.
Perhaps I will say “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” and, if I forget, say “tibbar, tibbar, tibbar” while walking down the stairs backwards. Yes, that sounds like a plan to me! Or maybe I’ll alternate–do the “black rabbits” evening and ”white rabbits” morning thing, as well. However, I don’t expect to try shouting anything first thing in the morning.
Posted by Kjirstin 
Posted by Kjirstin 
