Bunny, Bunny

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Martha McElveen, and I’m calling from Walderboro, Maine.

Well, hello.

Martha, what a great name.

Isn’t it a fine name?

It’s a fine name. What’s your middle name?

Elizabeth.

Elizabeth. Okay, mine’s Ann.

What’s your language question, Martha? You got one?

Yes, I do. In our family, we have always said out loud on the first day of the month when you wake up, Bunny Bunny. And if you remember to say it before you say anything else, you’re going to have a good month.

And I had never met anyone else who did that. But many years ago, the first of the month when I went to college, October 1st rolled around, and I woke up and I said, Bunny Bunny. And my roommate, who was from an old money East Coast family, this was in California, looked at me, kind of arched an eyebrow, and said, do you mean rabbit rabbit?

I almost died because I’d never met anyone who knew anything about it. But clearly in her family, they had the same tradition, only they weren’t saying any bunny bunny. They were saying the incredibly proper rabbit rabbit.

Oh, wow.

And so did you two duke it out then?

No, no. We both just had a real good laugh. But I’ve always wondered where the expression comes from. I mean, it’s clearly not just our family.

I’ve heard of this before.

Oh, yeah. When I was nine, there were two books that were constantly checked out of the student library at Claude Brown Elementary. And one of those books was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. And the one next to it, for some unknown reason, was a book of superstitions. And this was in there.

And I don’t remember that book to save my life. I don’t remember the title of it or the author or anything. But I do remember going, that’s pretty cool. That’s really interesting. And they had all the other stuff about stepping on cracks and mother’s backs and that sort of thing.

So you’re not alone. It’s not just the two of you. But you don’t know where the expression came from or anything, huh?

Well, we’ve got a few ideas. Rabbits have been associated with luck, both good and bad, for more than 2,000 years. The oldest I’ve been able to take it back is just the early part of the 1900s. I’m sure it’s older than that. I suspect it comes from the United Kingdom.

Oh, I think it did. I think it hopped the pond. I think it’s been around a long time. I think it did hop the pond. I do know that there are a lot of variations. One of the older variations is white rabbit, white rabbit. And not only that, but some of the variations insist that you say the word three times, not twice.

And still other variations say that you pull a hair out of your head after you say it, and then you punch somebody nearby. Another one says, now these are all happening on the first day of the month as soon as you wake up. You can’t say another word first or it’s all canceled out.

Exactly. The other one says that when you do that, then you get out the end of the bed, not the side, or else you ruin it. There’s tons of this. There’s 1,001 variations. Also, this is widespread throughout the European cultures. A lot of people believe that if you’re born on the first of the month, then you’re lucky for life.

So I don’t know the origin for Rabbit Rabbit, but it sure is fun to talk about it.

Yes, yes. That’s a lot of interesting variations that I had never heard of. The only one I had ever heard of was the Rabbit Rabbit versus Bunny Bunny, and I just figured it was sort of an East Coast versus West Coast thing there.

Well, Martha, I have to ask, did you manage to say it first on the first of this month?

This month I did, yes.

Yeah, and that’s why you’re having such a great month, right?

That’s it.

Well, good for you.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, Martha.

All right, nice talking with you. Best of luck.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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