Rabbit's foot
A rabbit's foot became a famous charm in nineteenth-century America, rooted in African American hoodoo, where the left hind foot was the one prized. By the 1880s, rabbit's feet were popular trinkets in places such as New Orleans.
What it may mean
Every real rabbit's foot charm began with a rabbit that got no good fortune from it. A woman who remembered the charms from her 1970s school days, when people carried them on backpacks and purses, put it plainly to a folklore collector: definitely not good luck for the rabbit. The charm itself has a serious history. It grew out of hoodoo, the African American folk magic of the South, where the left hind foot, ideally taken in a cemetery, was the powerful one, before it became a cheap trinket. Many comforts carry a cost somebody else paid, from cheap clothes to a peaceful house kept that way by someone working nights. Holding a rabbit's foot, you might remember the giver who never agreed to give.
Depending on how you saw it
A keychain from 1970s school days
A woman told a folklore collector that in her 1970s school days it was really popular to carry a rabbit's foot on a backpack or purse, and that she probably wanted one herself. Which charm from childhood do you remember wanting badly, and what did you hope it would do?
Only the left hind foot
In hoodoo, the African American folk magic of the South, the left hind foot was the one that counted, ideally taken at night in a cemetery. Which of your habits only works for you if it is done in exactly one way?
A faux fur version
Many rabbit's feet sold today are made of synthetic fur on a metal cap, keeping the shape and dropping the animal. What would you keep of an old custom if you gave up its harshest part?
Why it happens in nature
Rabbit's-foot charms were long made from real rabbit feet, dried and fitted with a metal cap and a chain; many sold now are synthetic. Folklorists trace the American charm to African American hoodoo, or conjure, described in print from the 1880s, when the feet were already being sold as trinkets in New Orleans.
To reflect on
Which comfort in your life came at a cost to someone else, and do you think of them when you use it?