According to a centuries-old superstition, saying rabbit, rabbit as soon as you wake up on the first day of every month will supposedly ensure good luck. Variants of this phrase include white rabbit, or white rabbit, white rabbit, or simply rabbits! If you forget, you can try to make up for it by saying tibbar, tibbar (rabbit, rabbit spelled backwards) at the end of the day. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a fan of this leporine tradition, as is Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman (Bookshop|Amazon). This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “In Like a Rabbit, Rabbit, on the First of the Month”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Jack Roper, Pauly’s Island, South Carolina.
Hi, Jack. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Jack.
Hi, thank you.
What’s on your mind?
In my family, there’s a phrase which I thought was in all families, but I seem to discover it’s not.
When a new month starts, like June 1st, July 1st, we’re supposed to say rabbit for good luck.
And my wife and I remind each other when we wake up, don’t say anything to say rabbit.
And then my children, who are our middle-aged children, they say that too.
So I got this from my father, who grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
He got it from his father, who’s from Charleston, South Carolina.
Over the years, I’ve got my teacher, and I’ve taught about 5,000 kids, and I teach them this.
And they all regard it as coming basically from Mars.
But then I made it up.
And so I’m wondering, have y’all ever heard of this, say rabbit, when the new month starts?
Oh, we sure have, Jack.
We have, and lots of variants.
Yeah.
I want to know where it comes from.
That’s really wonderful that you’re carrying on this tradition.
It’s a very, very long tradition.
And as Grant said, there are lots of different variants of this.
When I wake up on the first of the month, if I remember to do it, I say rabbit, rabbit.
That’s the way that I learned it.
And it has to be the first thing you say, because if you say anything before it, it doesn’t count.
Right.
If you say, where are my glasses? Where’s my thyroid pill? Then you’ve messed it up.
Although, you know, Jack, there are some people who say tibber tibber at the end of the day if they’ve messed up.
If they forgot to say it, they say tibber tibber, which is rabbit rabbit spells backwards.
I like that.
Yeah.
I like that a lot.
I’m going to start doing that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If y’all miss it, you can always make it up.
But there are lots of different versions of it.
Some people say white rabbit or white rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit, or bunny, bunny.
Or some people, before they fall asleep the night before, they say hare, hare, like H-A-R-E, hare, hare.
But in any case, this is a very long tradition.
And you’ll be pleased to know that one person who was really into it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He was known to say rabbits.
Simon Winchester, the guy who wrote the book about the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman, he had a fantastic record.
He recited White Rabbits every morning for 696 consecutive months and counting ever since 1948.
Wow.
He was four years old.
We know that it goes back to, what, Grant, at least the early 1900s.
There was a publication in Britain where one of the parents noted that his children said, Rabbit, rabbit, on the first of every month to, and they would say it up the chimney.
And supposedly that was going to bring them a present or good luck.
So it’s been around for a long time.
And of course, we’ve had traditions involving beliefs about rabbits.
You know, the ancient Celts thought that rabbits could communicate with spirits because they’re able to burrow underground.
And I don’t know, as a kid, you may have carried a rabbit’s foot for good luck.
But Americans got it from the British, is what you’re saying.
Yes, but I know a lot of people who do it, and it’s actually a great way, I think, to stay in touch with some friends that I don’t usually talk to through the month.
But we always reconnect on the first by texting each other, rabbit, rabbit.
On the first stage?
Yes, sir.
That’s very good.
That’s very good, yeah.
So you’re definitely not alone.
Okay, well, that’s reassuring.
Well, I enjoy your show an awful lot, and I’ll remember Timber, Timber.
Okay.
Take care of yourself, Jack.
Keep up the good work.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
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