My freshman high school English teacher used to tell us that if you said "rabbit rabbit rabbit" as the last thing you say at night on the last day of the month and then say "hare hare hare" as the first thing in the morning when you wake up on the first day of the next month you'd have good luck all month long. I tried to remember to do this at the end of each month. I'd get so far as saying "rabbit rabbit rabbit" as my last words at night, but would forget the "hare hare hare" in the morning. But I'm planning on doing both tonight and tomorrow morning so that February 2012 is a great month.
I also checked my English teacher's idea out to see if it's actually true. And here's what I found on wikipedia: "Rabbit rabbit" is a common British superstition. The most common modern version states that a person should say "rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit", "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit", "rabbits, rabbits, rabbits", "rabbit, rabbit" or simply "white rabbits" upon waking on the first day of each new month, and on doing so will receive good luck for the duration of that month. In the US, the tradition is especially common in Nantucket, Cape Cod, other towns within Massachusetts and throughout Vermont, notably in Middlebury and Chester."
The website also said: "The earliest referenced usage may be to saying "rabbits" three times before going to sleep the last night of the month, and then "hares" three times first thing upon waking, though just two years later, it was three "rabbits" in the morning with no "hares" at all." So maybe I was lucky all those times I forgot the "hares."
Our parents taught us to say the combination
ReplyDeleterabbits, rabbits,rabbits
Hares, hares, hares, three times with hares being repeated 7 times at the end, on the 1st MORNING of the month
I always remember them saying it was to bring good HUNTING luck, presumably hunters gained more rabbits ana hares during that month.
Nice old tradition that brings laughs if ever I present at a conference on the 1 day of the month and use it, but it breaks the ice
I had heard that you should say "rabbits rabbits rabbits" and the person you said it to should reply with "hares hares hares."
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