'Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits.'

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

This is an entirely trivial question I have long meant to ask here.

Could some kind soul please enlighten me as to why Lawrie, in response to Nick waking her on New Year's day in Run Away Home, says 'Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits'? To which Nicola responds 'Oh, rabbits, yes, I'd forgotten', after which we're told 'But was too late. She'd spoken.'

Is this somehow connected to bringing good luck in the New Year? (You say 'rabbits' before saying anything else? You invoke the talismanic power of the New Year Bunny?) Although at breakfast Lawrie is perturbed at having forgotten to see in the New Year the night before, and has to be consoled by Giles saying that having eaten twelve mince pies will balance out the bad luck - which I'd never come across before either. Clearly my New Years are very culturally impoverished.

ETA: Thanks, everyone. This was completely unfamiliar to me, and my new-found knowledge has made me resolve never to share a bed with any of you on the first of the month.

Comments

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

It's not just New Year's: it's the first of every month. I think the first person to say "rabbits" gets good luck? There's also "a pinch and a punch for the first of the month", which only the first person to say it gets to bestow.

[beth213.livejournal.com]

I remember it being "white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits" for 1st of March only - then the "pinch, punch" for other months. No idea why, though!
We had various replies to the "pinch, punch" one - "a punch and a kick for being so quick" and so on...

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

We had "a pinch and a kick for being so quick", which at least seems equal in pain and worth the tradeoff - I don't think I'd take a pinch and a punch of my sister for a punch and a kick from her.

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. My life has been a sheltered one. Thank you, though. Load off my mind.

[stellanova.livejournal.com]

Heavens, I have never heard of this before. Funny what sayings and traditions transcend the Irish sea and what don't!

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking the same thing. Then again, in neither my native nor adopted country am I renowned for my early morning bon mots.