Saying rabbit rabbit
Saying rabbit rabbit before anything else when a new month begins is a custom for good fortune that families, classmates and coworkers pass along. Its rules change as it travels: twice or three times, said alone or for someone to hear.
What it may mean
Hardly anyone picks their first words on waking. They are usually a groan at the alarm, a question about coffee, something muttered at the dog. "Rabbit rabbit" asks for a decision instead: on the first of the month, before anything else comes out of your mouth, say these two words. A woman in New York told a student that she has done it since 1980, when a coworker taught her, and that she says it every month just to be on the safe side. Whatever it does for fortune, the custom does something plain. It makes you remember, half awake, that a new month has begun, and it puts a small, silly phrase in place of a complaint. You might try choosing your first words on other mornings too, and see what changes.
Depending on how you saw it
Remembering at noon
Lots of people only remember the custom after they have already spoken, then say it anyway at lunch with a sheepish laugh. When you forget the beginning of a ritual, do you skip it or start late?
Twice or three times
A woman in Yonkers and a family in Portland say "rabbit" twice; a Colorado family said it three times. Each family learned its own count and kept it. Which family version of a custom do you insist on, and where did you learn it?
Said so someone hears it
One student told a collector that his mother insists someone has to hear you say it, while he says it on his own as soon as he wakes up. Which of your wishes count more for you once another person has heard them?
Why it happens in nature
Nobody knows for certain where the custom began. It spreads mainly by word of mouth, from parents, teachers, classmates and coworkers, and the rules shift as it travels: how many times to say it, whether someone must hear it and whether it must be the very first thing said after waking.
What folk beliefs say
United States (New York)
A woman from Yonkers, New York, has made rabbit, rabbit her first words of every month since a coworker taught her in 1980; another coworker from England told her that in England it is said only on the first of March.
Source: Victoria Westmoreland (collector), "Rabbit Rabbit" Superstition (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2017), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
United States (Oregon, New York)
A family from Portland, Oregon, whose mother grew up in Brooklyn with parents from England, said rabbit, rabbit on waking on the first of each month, for good fortune through the month and a present of some kind by its end.
Source: Kaplan (collector), Rabbit Rabbit (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2012), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
United States (Colorado)
A Colorado family held that if the first words you say in a month are rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, you will have good luck for the whole month.
Source: stuurman (collector), Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2020), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
To reflect on
If you chose your first words on an ordinary morning, what would you want them to be?