Rabbit Rabbit

When I was in middle school my family and I picked up the rabbit rabbit tradition. Everyone was doing it. On the first of the month you greeted everybody by saying rabbit rabbit. If you said it first you win. It was always something to gloat about if you rabbit rabbited everyone before they got you. I was thinking about this strange tradition today, mostly because my sister posted to facebook a general rabbit rabbit. I decided to look it up and see where this strange idea got started. I went to the ever trustworthy source of Wikipedia. I discovered that this tradition may have begun as early as the 1800s in England. A phrase was more commonly said “Rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit” or simply rabbit three times. If you said this phrase on the first day of the month you were supposed to have good luck and if it was your birthday month you received an extra portion of luck. In some cases it was considered bad luck not to say it. In order to counter the bad luck you might say “tibbar, tibbar” as you go to bed or maybe “moose, moose” on the second.

If this phrase was said on the January first then you were the lucky recipient of year long luck. I think I must be a very lucky person under this supposition. I stopped saying rabbit rabbit to people exactly eleven years and one month ago. You see on that particular first of the month I beat everyone: my parents, my sisters, my aunt and uncle. They were the only ones in the house. We were playing an exciting game of phase 10, if my memory serves, and eating jalapeno poppers. You see I won because I’m very competitive. So when everyone else is yelling out “Happy New Year” and giving hugs. I proclaimed “Rabbit rabbit, everyone.” This of course set off a chain reaction of rabbit rabbits amongst my immediate family. My aunt and uncle simply looked confused. That is the last time I played. That particular first was extraordinary. It was the first of the month. It was January making it the first of the year. It was the first day of a new decade and it was the first day of a new score. It was the first day of a new century, which some people never get to experience and it culminated as the first day of a new millennium which is a very rare thing to experience. Yes, I won the rabbit rabbit game for all time when I beat everyone on January 1^st of 2000. So spread cheer and fun by telling your friends rabbit rabbit, but as for me I think I have enough luck for a lifetime.