caseyporn | articles | white rabbits, smoke, and superstitions

A friend recently told me that, if you are sitting around a campfire and the smoke is blowing in your face, you should say the phrase "I hate white rabbits" three times, and the smoke will change direction. This seemed particularly arcane, so I thought I would do a little research into how such a superstition could come about.

Now, I'm no folklore expert, and I don't have a complete library of Western folk tradition to refer to, so I did what any other geek would do: searched the web!

It turns out that the "white rabbit" phrase is more general than I had first suspected -- but I don't want to spoil it for you...

I Hate White Rabbits and smoke

Apart from my friend, I found a few references to the exact phrase "I hate white rabbits" and smoke. This one was reported from Africa, but the story was told from someone from either London or Toronto (http://www.jennaworld.com/africa_lk_manyara.htm):

Although the weather was chilly, we managed to stay warm by staying close to the fire. Jordy taught me how to ward off the smoke from the fire. Just chant "I hate white rabbits" three times and the smoke will take on a different direction.

This one was reported in "The Chilliwack Times", and also adds hopping on one leg (http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/071202/opinion/071202op2.html):

The wind usually whipped the smoke from the fire around so that those seated closest to the lake had it directly in their eyes. The remedy was to repeat "I hate white rabbits" and hop around on one foot to get it to blow in another person's direction.

And one more strange reference came from alt.fan.cecil-adams, in this very off-topic posting:

Nose grease was part of one of the beer-head-reducing strategies of my keg-tapping college days. Rub your nose to pick up some NG, then swirl your finger around in the foam. Did this work? who knows? it was just one of those things, like saying "I hate white rabbits" when smoke from a campfire blows in your eyes.

This gave me enough evidence to think that this was a wide-spread (if very strange) superstition. I kept digging...

Are white rabbits good or bad?

I found an interesting posting to the alt.gothic.fashion newsgroup which had two different mentions of white rabbits:

> okay, expert elven boyfriend of mine says:
> saying "white rabbits white rabbits white rabbits:" on the first day of the
> month, as soon as you wake, brings you good luck. all month.

And my beloved man-thing claims that if you're sitting near someone who's smoking, and the smokes going in your face, you should say, "I hate white rabbits" over and over to make the smoke change direction.

and another posting, posted in alt.support.depression in 1997, also mentions both "i hate white rabbits" and "white rabbits":

> Well, I got it out of a book (can't remember which one) which described
> saying "Rabbit Rabbit" first thing on the first day of a new month as an
> old New England custom. My ancestors came to New England in 1637 or so,
> and *I'd* never heard of it. But my kids liked it, so we picked it up.
> It's supposed to bring good luck, and we could *all* use more of that.

We always used to say "I hate white rabbits" if smoke from a campfire blew in your eyes. Sposta make the smoke go away, I think.

So while it seems that "I hate white rabbits" is quite specific to smoke (be it campfire smoke or cigarette smoke), "white rabbit" was an older, more generally superstitious term.

White Rabbits - Good Luck and Magic

Well, from here on in, it seems that other people have done a much better job of cataloguing the occurrence of "white rabbit" or "rabbit" for good luck or magic. Here are some links:

A thread about white rabbits with good background. Mostly about saying "rabbit" on the first of a month, with lots of permutations. Taken also from a general page about rabbit superstitions that doesn't mention smoke at all.
A fantasy story where "white rabbits" is a magical phrase, first thing in the morning.
And it seems that I found the best resource last: White Rabbit Theory has lots of info regarding "white rabbit" as good luck, but (again) nothing about smoke.

I hope this has been helpful! If you have anything you would like to tell me about white rabbits and smoke, you can email me. Cheers!

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