On June 4, 1951, the Cleveland Indians played the New York Yankees — in Cleveland. The Indians were major underdogs. In fact, the Indians prospects were so dismal that the Plain Dealerr distributed lucky rabbits’ feet to the Indian fans. The Indians won 8 – 2!! Was it the rabbits’ feet that did it? What’s with those rabbits’ feet, and why are they lucky?
There is an old superstition that on the first day of the month, if your first words that day are “rabbit rabbit,” you’ll have good luck for the rest of the month.
There’s no clear answer as to how rabbits became associated with good-luck superstitions, but rabbits and their wild cousin, the hare, have been associated with the favorable aspects of spring, renewal, and fertility since pagan times. In the Middle Ages, hares were associated with magical witches who were said to be able to change themselves into rabbits.
Despite its association with witchery, the rabbit was still considered a lucky animal because of its many offspring and its burrowing habits. People feared what was buried under the Earth, so they admired the rabbit’s ability to live underground and still survive.
Eventually, the legends surrounding rabbits including fertility, the ability to survive evil and magical powers became associated with “luck” — specifically, in the left hind foot of a rabbit. Of course I guess rabbits have a different view of that….
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