Rabbits and Lavender

Well, a friend and I were speaking the other evening about midnight following new year's eve and she mentioned she was first to say "rabbit rabbit". I had never heard of this custom so she elaborated a bit that the old custom was to say this the first of the month to ensure good luck for the rest of the month. So I went searching the wonderful Internet and found some sites where this is discussed:
Wikipedia has this to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_rabbit
Then there's harrumph! : http://www.harrumph.com/rabbit/
So many here I didn't have time to read them: http://www.dendritics.com/scales/white-rabbits.asp
I suggest you "Google" it yourself as there were many more places to read about this. Amazing!

So, the original conversation turned to other talk of rabbits. I mentioned the "rabbit in the moon", and in particular that Aztec Two-Step performs a song about this. It seems the Aztec people see a rabbit in the full moon (check it out on the 22nd, look for the rabbit to be upside-down.) I had to go looking for the song as it is one of my favorites. You can hear it here: http://groups.imeem.com/fCW2ERMD/music/oOrZPhYY/the_rabbit_in_the_moon/
Then we got on to other phrases, and in particular the one about being "laid out in lavender" and what it means. My friend's husband had never even heard of this phrase. During his Internet search, it seems it has meant both good and bad things over the years.

My take, and my friend's, was that someone was being criticized or berated, but it appears this is the least used meaning. Here's one site with it's definitions: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/222725.html

I hope I've enlightened you, at least a little bit. Stay tuned for future updates. And please, feel free to comment on all of this if you are so inclined.

Peace,
Judi