54°f/12°C, mostly clear.
Rabbit, rabbit rabbit! Time to say the magic words that will make us all rich and/or lucky this month! You can see how well it has worked for me, saying it all these years. As to where the saying originated, apparently no one knows for sure, but some link it to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The first written record of the saying was in 1908, when someone reported a young girl saying it.
Did you ever carry a lucky rabbit's foot? I know I had one as a child, and I bought one for a program on superstitions I presented a while back. But did you know that this seems to have come from an African tradition, probably brought to the US by slaves. History.com reports that one advertisement for rabbit's feet said that "A 1908 British account reports rabbits’ feet imported from America being advertised as ‘the left hind foot of a rabbit killed in a country churchyard at midnight, during the dark of the moon, on Friday the 13th of the month, by a cross-eyed, left-handed, red-headed bow-legged Negro riding a white horse,’” he writes. “While other collected versions disagree about exactly when the rabbit must be killed, all indicate that the rabbit's foot historicizes an especially uncanny or evil time: the dark of the moon; a Friday; a rainy Friday; a Friday the Thirteenth.”
Whew. I don't think I will ever carry one again! Although, Franklin D. Roosevelt was never without one, and he also said 'rabbit, rabbit, rabbit' on the first of the month.
Also, did you know that September used to be the seventh month? That was back under the old Roman calender and the name stems from the Latin word for seven, septem. When the change to the Gregorian calender was made, a couple months were added, shifting September from seventh to ninth place. The same happened with October, November, and December.
So, there's that, and not at all what I meant to write about this morning. But down the proverbial internet rabbit hole I went!
We got the apples done yesterday. It took 4 hours, and we ended up with 40 quarts; more than enough, added to what we already have, to make our apple butter.
Time to get out of here and take that table to Haley. Happy Labor/Labour Day, all!
My mother always said "Rabbits" on the first day of the month. And it was always the first word of the day. Note that it was plural, so meaning more than one rabbit, but not necessarily three rabbits as in your family tradition. And my cousin insists it should be "White Rabbits"!! Same story but different!
ReplyDeleteI learned it from my mother, who got it from her mother so I always assumed the saying was English in origin.
DeleteGood one Sue: down the rabbit hole. The rabbit rabbit tradition is new to me as carried on by a few more southern bloggers. But I did have a rabbit’s foot, or even two, as a kid. I just liked them, but I don’t recall carrying them around or believing it that they were lucky.
ReplyDeleteThey were sold as a good luck charm, but i think most kids bought them because they were a fad back then.
Delete...rabbit were never a part of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know rabbits were related to rich and lucky...and wow...so much apple butter!
ReplyDeleteIt will cook down from 60 quarts to 30, Angie. We put it in pints or even half-pints, and it divides among 5 or 6 families, who also share it among their family members. So it ends up being spread pretty thin!
DeleteI had a lucky rabbit's foot as a child, but I have no idea where it went.
ReplyDeleteI think we all must have had one! Those poor rabbits.
Deletei don't recall any folklore associated with a lucky rabbit's foot, but I remember that in junior high many of us had one dangling from a book bag or pocketbook. I think they came from the dime store, dyed in garish colors.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in New England we could get apples all winter from the cold storage plant in the next town. We've tried many varieties of local [KY] apples and some brought in from NC or PA--nothing has the same crisp 'bite.'
We used to be able to buy from an apple storage house in Virginia. We could get a bushel for $1.50 of the not-pretty apples. Culls, I think they were called. Great apples, anyway. Of course that was over 50 years ago!
DeleteI had a rabbit's foot as a child. They used to color them bright colors and were attached to a little chain. However, I have never heard of saying, "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit," at the first of the month.
ReplyDeleteDoes the Victoria strainer work better than a Foley Mill? I only quarter the apples when I use it.
Yes, the Victorio is much faster and easier, I think. We use it for tomato juice too. I think the Foley is better for small batches, but if you're doing more than a couple meals' worth, then the Viictorio is the champ. Another similar brand is the Squeezo, but they are pretty much the same.
DeleteThe expression is fairly new to me. Never heard it growing up, in college, after college. Not until Blogger Vicki Lane said it each month. Now from you I know the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, when we lived in The Philippine Islands in the early 50s (may parents were missionaries) we grew rabbits and we ate them!
We are raising meat rabbits now. We had them last year and the year before, but the last two got loose and didnt survive long to enjoy that freedom, sadly. We had a new exuberant puppy, you see. He is older now,and we put electric fence around the hitches so he won't go near them.
DeleteI had rabbits as pets when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteWe would have loved that!
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