Before I met Leah, I ‘d never heard of saying “rabbit, rabbit” on the first of the month. Doing a little research, it turns out this is a tradition associated the most with Northern New England, which is quite a bit closer to the Boston area (where Leah grew up) than Oregon (where I grew up), so that makes sense.

But rabbit, rabbit—what is it? Saying “rabbit, rabbit” as soon as you wake up on the first of any month, or apparently saying “rabbits,” “white rabbits,” or “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” should get you good luck. Or it might get you a present, or any number of things, depending on which legend you follow. It also might help if you shout your chosen phrase up a chimney, but Leah and I don’t have a chimney, so when I woke up today I just shouted it at her through our sliding bedroom door once I remembered (I was eating my breakfast, she was still sleeping). I’m not superstitious, but I think the tradition is fun, so now that I know about it I’m taking part.

Clicking here will take you to a Wikipedia link if you want a general overview on how to make the first day of the month a little more auspicious. Now, to connect this to English, my chosen field of education and study: “semantic satiation” is the name for the psychological phenomenon where repetition of a word causes it to lose its meaning for a speaker, or causes the word to just sound “strange.” If you find yourself typing “rabbit, rabbit,” “rabbits,” “white rabbits,” “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” “or reading more about “grey rabbits” or saying “I love white rabbits but hate grey rabbits,” and the word “rabbit” starts to look pretty odd to you, “semantic satiation” is probably the reason why.

Rabbit!

Rabbit!

–Jeff and Leah (Rabbit!)