Talk:Rabbit rabbit rabbit

Articles for Deletion debate
This article survived an Articles for Deletion debate. The discussion can be found here. -Splash 22:42, 10 September 2005 (UTC)


 * White Rabbit Smoke --- This article use to only be about the tradition of saying "I hate white rabbits" when the fire smoke went in your face. And it barely mentioned the first of the month tradition. Now it doesn't mention that. I don't remember when I last looked but it could have been that long ago (2005). Sorry I'm too lazy to look through ancient revision history or waybackmachine right now. I do remember that I edited it to have more emphasis for the first of the month tradition at one point. Anyway I'm going to put the bit about Smoke bunnies back in since it's much easier nowadays to find references so people won't delete it just cuz its folklore.Rusl (talk) 22:59, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

Turtle Turtle
Replacing 'Rabbit, Rabbit' with 'Turtle, Turtle' in the summer months is a fallacy. --MathewBrooks (talk) 13:44, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Doubt of Print
"this seems doubtful, as printing with movable type wasn't invented in Europe until 1439" by Dickvb4 17:07, 1 June 2008
 * Moved the above comment to discussion as it breaks the flow of the text and was original research/opinion. It's quite possible the the printing in question was a woodcut, which predate movable type, still it'd be nice if someone could cite the information. --Kyace (talk) 05:42, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Contradictory Statements
I have removed the following paragraph from the article; it consists of two contradictory assertions, recently inserted by two different editors, with no sources cited. Thank you. Davnor (talk) 16:02, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

''Some believe it is only in Yorkshire it could bring you luck if said on the 1st of March. However, this is not correct. It is a tradition all over Britain to say "White Rabbit" upon waking on the 1st of March to receive good luck for the next year. Saying "White Rabbit" at this time, is probably connected to the forthcoming Easter celebrations...since Easter is named after Ēastre, the Hare Goddess of fertility and fecundity as worshipped by Germanic/Anglo-Saxon paganism.''

o rly?
The article notes, "Today it has spread to most of the English-speaking countries of the world". As a resident of one of the larger of those countries -- Texas :) -- I would beg to differ. I've never heard of the tradition in my own 40-some years of waking up on the first day of a new month.  I suspect this is more the result of a Twitter meme than of an actual superstition, at least on this side of the pond. (That said, it's nice to see an article that takes an overly British POV, to counteract the usual overly American POV!) --Robertb-dc (talk) 20:20, 1 October 2010 (UTC)


 * I have certainly heard people say 'White Rabbits' long before the internet came along. However, I would question the statement "The tradition is especially common in Nantucket, Cape Cod and Natick, Massachusetts."  Source?? Lord Spring Onion (talk) 14:30, 1 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Definately not a twitter meme in my expereince. My Family probably got it from New England but they also lived in the South a bit: Florida, Dallas, and brought it with them there (1940s-1960s) and eventually my Dad brought it with him up here to Vancouver, BC Rusl (talk) 22:55, 3 October 2016 (UTC)


 * I learned it as "Rabbit Rabbit" from my mother, who grew up in Brookline, near Boston, but whose mother was brought up in Texas and California. (I'm tempted to claim saying it three times is just wrong.)  50.0.205.159 (talk) 08:37, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Fuller Sussex Version
I can't find a source or reference for this, but I'm from an old East Sussex (UK) family & was brought up to say the following rhyme:

"Rabbits, White Rabbits; Rabbits and Hares; Hares and Hounds; White Rabbits"

on the first morning of every month. My mother taught me this: she learned it from her grandmother (born 1894) who learned it from her own mother (born in the 1850's) so it dates back to at least the mid-19th century. I've searched for an online reference but have not found this variant mentioned anywhere. Does anyone know of a source or reference?Butcherscross (talk) 11:39, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Only in Rabbit months?
This came to mind earlier this morning. I remember it from growing up in '50s London.

In the same way as described by others here, we were encouraged to say "White Rabbits" - out loud, before saying any other words, on waking on the first of a month - but it was only relevant for months with an "r" in them ("r" for rabbit?).

Perhaps others say it every month just to be on the safe side, since there seemed to be no penalty for saying it in a "wrong" month.

I don't recall it having any effect, nor any effect being promised. It was just a tradition, an awareness/memory/spelling game.

I'd conjecture it had something to do with rabbits for the pot [WP:OR] !.

Other rabbits, I think, are alert and aware of the seasons, but probably can't spell that well. One is one and one is one (talk) 01:04, 1 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I've heard that about the "R" from somewhere too. If a reliable source could be found it could be added to the article, under Variants. There's an old saying, from the days before refrigerators, that one should only eat pork when there's an "R" in the month (i.e. not in the hot summer months), so I suppose it could be related to that in some way. —S MALL  JIM   10:31, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Additional information
(I am new to editing wikipedia pages so formatting corrections to this submission are welcomed!)

I have encountered this tradition (saying "white rabbit" on the first Day of each Month) in Dallas, Texas and in Overland Park, Kansas during the 1980s & 1990s.

It was practiced within my Family & Friends by being the first person to say it to someone else on seeing them. It was seen as a "loss" or a "win" that Siblings could perpetuate on each other or on a Parent, sort of like pranking or being pranked.

To "win" You had to be the first to say it and it required eyc contact (so over the phone or finding it in an email/note didn't count).

When I got older and asked why we said it, I was told that Children can learn to pay attention to Days & Weeks but there is rarely any reason for them to pay attention to Months. So remembering when to say "white rabbit" is a reason to care about the monthly calendar and start learning how long a Month feels like.

That worked with me!

When I got to High School we added "Purple Mongoose" Days, which is any date where multiplying the number of the Month (1-12) by the number of the Day (1-31) gives you an answer with the final two digits matching the final two digits of the Year (00-99). I remember writing a program to do that in computer class!

NewChrissy (talk) 18:03, 31 March 2017 (UTC) NewChrissy

You say the word how many times?
While the article says "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" is a variation, everywhere I look, the word is only said twice. I think this should be mentioned that's popular, as opposed to the three times the article seems to indicate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.104.243.221 (talk) 03:03, 1 March 2018 (UTC)

Say “rabbit” how many times?
We said it three times. And btw, I heard about this tradition as a child in the early 1950s in New Jersey. Definitely not started as a meme. 45.37.103.159 (talk) 13:39, 1 December 2021 (UTC)