Introduction:
Among the superstitious: FDR wore a rabbit’s foot for good luck and Sarah Jessica Parker says “rabbit, rabbit” at the beginning of each month. Here are some theories behind hare superstitions.
If you check Twitter on the first day of the month, you might notice the “Bunny-Bunny” trend. This is due to the superstition that if the first words that day are “rabbit, rabbit”, you will be lucky for the rest of the month.
Alleged followers of this tradition include actress Sarah Jessica Parker and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who also wore a hare’s foot for good luck. There is no clear answer as to how rabbits became associated with the good luck superstition, but folklorists have suggested that the specific custom of wearing a Hare’s foot may have come from various sources.
Why do people wear rabbit feet?
One theory is that European Americans acquired rabbit feet through African American customs or jokes they didn’t fully understand, writes Bill Ellis, professor emeritus of English and American studies at Penn State University, in “Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture.” . He explains that in the early 1900s, American companies selling rabbit bones certified their authenticity by claiming that a black man had chopped them up under certain, apparently unfortunate circumstances.
“A 1908 British report reports that rabbit feet imported from America are advertised as ‘left hind foot of a rabbit found in a country graveyard at midnight, under the darkness of the moon, on Friday the 13th of the month “Cross was killed – ‘left-handed, red-haired, bow-legged negro riding a white horse,’ he writes. “While other collected versions disagree on exactly when the rabbit was to be killed, they all suggest that Hare’s Foot historicizes a particularly inauspicious or evil time: the dark of the moon; a Friday; a rainy Friday; a Friday the thirteenth.”
It is difficult to determine whether these marketing descriptions refer to an actual tradition, a joke among African Americans, or a cruel joke about African Americans (at least one marketing description for a Hare’s foot included a racial statement). But it is true that other superstitions about body parts also exist among early Europeans and African Americans, as well as in Europe and Africa. Benjamin Radford, associate editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, suggests that their foot may be related to a European lucky charm called the Hand of Glory.
“The hand of glory was the hand of a hanged man,” he says. In medieval Europe, authorities sometimes left the bodies of hanged men in public to warn others against committing crimes. “But often people cut off one of the hands … usually the left one and put it in.”
Ellis writes that rabbit’s feet, like the Glory Hand, were sometimes considered good luck charms because they were associated with the body of a criminal. According to early 20th century folklorist Newbell Niles Puckett, Grover Cleveland is said to have received the paw from a rabbit killed on Jesse James’ grave when Cleveland was running for president in 1884.
More than fifty years later, Puckett wrote of this: “The worse the person who is dead, the more powerful is the spell attached to his remains.”
Why people say “rabbit, rabbit.”:
If there is no clear answer to the question of how rabbit feet got lucky, there is also no answer to the question of why people started saying “rabbit-rabbit” (or variants such as “rabbit” or “rabbit-rabbit”). The earliest written reference may be from a 1909 issue of the British journal Notes and Queries, where a parent noted that some children said “rabbit” for good luck on the first day of each month.
Thereafter, references to superstition occurred only sporadically. In 1935, Britain’s Nottingham Evening Post reported this gossip: “Mr. Roosevelt, President of the United States, admitted to a friend that he says ‘Rabbit’ on the first of every month – and besides, he wouldn’t dream of dropping that saying anyway.” Superstitions came too. included in Trixie Belden’s book The Mystery of the Emeralds, a 1962 children’s crime series, and on Nickelodeon in the 1990s.
Some have suggested that “rabbits” are considered good luck charms, as rabbits are known to be fertile and are strongly associated with spring and renewal. But the fact is, we have no idea why people say “rabbit rabbit” or if it’s related to the superstition surrounding their feet.
And while many assume these traditions must go way back in the past, there is no written record of the rabbit’s foot or “rabbit hare” superstition before the 20th century.”There are many superstitions, customs and beliefs that we take for granted and assume are hundreds of years old,” says Radford, but “in many cases they are relatively new.”
Wild rabbit feet:
Did you know that rabbit is also called “Hare” and their feet are not only a fun snack for your furry friend, but also provide many health benefits?
Their feet are packed with important minerals such as manganese, selenium and calcium. Manganese helps reduce inflammation and improve metabolism, while selenium is an antioxidant that strengthens your dog’s immune system. Calcium is important for strong muscles and bones, making Hare feet an ideal supplement for dogs and cats of all ages.
If your pet suffers from allergies, hare feet are an excellent choice as they are relatively hypoallergenic and dogs or cats with food allergies rarely react to hare proteins. In addition, the fur fibers on hare feet can naturally clean the intestinal walls and help remove worms.
Another benefit of hare feet is their high content of vitamin B12, which is important for the central nervous system and the production of red blood cells. And if you’re concerned about the health of your dog’s joints and teeth, rabbit feet are an excellent source of chondroitin and glucosamine, which can help maintain healthy joints and teeth.
Cats, small dogs, and dogs that cannot eat larger, harder bones can have hare feet to supplement their bone, calcium, and phosphorus intake.
So if you want to give your dog a nutritious treat that not only satisfies his chewing instinct but also provides many health benefits, consider adding hare feet to his diet.
