{"id":10005,"date":"2026-01-19T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=10005"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:22:48","slug":"rabbiting-january-19th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/rabbiting-january-19th\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbiting January 19th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"London
January from London Illustrated Almanac of 1873 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

January & Rabbits<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In January, the ‘coney is so ferreted that she cannot keep in her borough’ says Nicholas Breton. He wrote in the January entry of the Kalendar of Shepherds. (See my post here<\/a>). In modern speech he means, ‘the rabbit is so hunted with the aid of ferrets that she cannot keep to her burrow’. The London Illustrated Almanac of 1873 chose the Rabbit as its wild animal of the month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good Luck Rabbits!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you need good luck say ‘Rabbit, Rabbit’. No less a person than FD Roosevelt used to say this. No one knows why. Rabbits’ feet are lucky too. I remember some of my friends had them in our Surrey village in the early 60s. Some of Dad’s neighbours kept ferrets, and I remember dead Rabbits hanging from walls. The merits of the feet are given by the history.com website: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA 1908 British account reports rabbits\u2019 feet imported from America being advertised as \u2018the left hind foot of a rabbit killed in a country churchyard at midnight, during the dark of the moon, on Friday the 13th of the month, by a cross-eyed, left-handed, red-headed bow-legged Negro riding a white horse,\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.history.com\/news\/ <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to why, no one really knows<\/a>. But Pliny the Elder in 71AD reported that cutting off the foot of a live hare could cure gout. There are European traditions of rabbit and other animal’s feet amulets curing all sorts of ailments. There are associations with witches, who could shape-shift into a rabbit. So a rabbit’s foot would be witchy and therefore powerful. In March, I reported on the Hare<\/a>, and their, similar, associations with witches:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
As Mad as a March Hare March 28th<\/a><\/blockquote>