by Terry McCombs (God/dess of the Month Club)

April 2007's entry in the God/dess of the Month Club is one of the most expansive in the series — a full cross-cultural survey of rabbit and hare as sacred figures across the globe. Terry McCombs moves from the Ojibwe Nanabozho who helped create the world, to the Jade Rabbit on the moon pounding medicine for the Chinese gods, to the Aztec Centzon Totochtin (the Four Hundred Rabbits, gods of fertility and drunkenness), to the mysterious Three Hares symbol that appears simultaneously in cave temples in China and medieval English churches, shared ears forming a triangle.

The post is characteristic McCombs: wide-ranging, genuinely curious, written without academic pretension. He ends by noting that rabbits, unlike bears or eagles, seem like improbable candidates for godhood — small, prey animals, companions of nothing — and wonders if that is precisely the point. A recent study, he notes, has found rabbits and hares to be closer to primates than to rodents. "Perhaps it's just those ears," he concludes. "I think it's the ears."

NAME: Rabbit or Hare. When the mystic or divine aspect of an animal is the subject, that animal's name is used only it is capitalized, so there are rabbits and hares, and there is Rabbit and Hare, depending on the word used in the culture in question.

Some hare or rabbit gods and goddesses include:

• Hittavainen — Finnish god of Hares
• Kaltes — Siberian goddess of the moon who often took the form of a hare
• Jade Rabbit — pounds out medicine on the moon for the Chinese gods
• Ometotchtli (Two Rabbits) — Aztec god of fertility, parties, and drunkenness, who led 400 other Rabbit gods known as the Centzon Totochtin
• Kalulu (Central African) — Trickster god
• Nanabozho (Great Rabbit, Ojibwe) — deity who took part in the creation of the world
• Frith — god of the rabbits in the novel Watership Down

(Note how many doubled sounds appear in the hare and rabbit deity names above.)

SYMBOLS: Depends on the culture. Some are: colored eggs, various glyphs and icons, the "lucky" rabbit's foot — which, done correctly, should only come from a rabbit caught and killed in a graveyard on the night of the Full Moon on a Friday (New Moon according to some, and some say it must be raining), and only the left hind foot is to be taken.

One very prominent symbol that stretches from China through the Middle East to Europe is the Three Hares (or Three Rabbits in China). The image is so old that its exact meaning is lost. It consists of a circular motif featuring three hares or rabbits, either chasing each other or running in a circle. Each pair of ears is shared by two animals so that only three ears are shown, forming a triangle.

While common, its origin and meaning are uncertain; it is also unknown whether this image spontaneously arose in the places where it appears or moved from East to West or West to East. The earliest occurrences seem to have taken place in cave temples in China dated to the sixth and seventh centuries. One of the latest is a coin from Iran dated around 1300. In England the Three Racing Hares are almost always found next to the Green Man, a symbol long linked to paganism. Whatever the case, whether they are rabbits or hares, for creatures running around in a circle they have been able to travel a very long way.

USUAL IMAGE: Depends on the culture, but nearly all focus on the long ears. The Aztec also give Rabbit fangs.

HOLY DAYS:

The first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox — this particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon) and the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21.

July 4, 1862 — the date on which "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" arose, with the appearance of the White Rabbit, as told by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson during a boat trip on the river Isis from Oxford to Godstow.

July 27 — Bugs Bunny's Birthday.

The first day of each month — see below under form of worship.

FORM OF WORSHIP: Originally Welsh, the custom has spread and varies from place to place. The basic folk tradition is the saying of either Rabbit or Rabbits, or White Rabbits, once or three times on the first day of the month. Variations include saying Bunny or Black Rabbit the last day of the month before going to bed, and White Rabbit on waking up on the first. This is supposed to bring good luck — however, if you say Rabbit a second time that first day, or you hear someone else say it before you, it brings bad luck.

GODS AND GODDESSES ASSOCIATED WITH RABBITS OR HARES: Eostre or Ostara (Anglo-Saxon) / Chang'e (Chinese) / Ixchel (Mayan) / Hecate (Greek) / Okuninushi (Japanese) / Venus (Roman) / Freyja, who had hare attendants (Norse) / Cerridwen (Celtic) / Andraste (Britain) / Holda, who had a whole troop of hares that carried torches for her (Teutonic) / Orion, whose hounds chase the constellation Lepus / Windmaker (Sioux) / The Buddha, who as he was dying called for all of the animal kingdom — one of the twelve who showed up was Rabbit, earning Rabbit a place in the Chinese Zodiac.

RABBITS AND HARES FROM FOLK AND POP CULTURE: Brer Rabbit in the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris — based not on African but on Cherokee tales of Rabbit. Bunnicula (Deborah and James Howe). Peter Cottontail (Thornton Burgess). Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, the Flopsy Bunnies (Beatrix Potter). Rabbit from Winnie-the-Pooh (A. A. Milne). Hazel-rah, Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry, Dandelion, El-Ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé (Richard Adams, Watership Down). The White Rabbit and the March Hare (Lewis Carroll). Bugs Bunny, American Trickster god. Frank, the seven-foot apocalyptic rabbit in Donnie Darko. Harvey (actually a pooka) in Harvey. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney's main hero before Mickey Mouse. The Rabbit of Caerbannog (Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Roger Rabbit. Thumper. The Duracell Bunny. The Energizer Bunny. The Trix Rabbit. And many, many others.

Most animals are regarded as sacred or manifestations of the divine to some degree or other among some people. It's easy to figure out the bear or horse for their ferocity or strength, the dog for its loyalty, the cat for its mysterious nature, eagles and hawks for flight, even the lowly spider for its ability to spin webs.

Therefore it stands to reason that rabbits and hares would show up somewhere on the sacred radar screen as well. The question, I think, is why these creatures — one of the few to serve as pet, pest, and food simultaneously — have gained such a prominent place in world myth, legend, and religion, while other animals we are closer to show up less, or are held in less esteem.

Why have they found a place beside so many gods and goddesses that would more logically be filled by a dog, cat, or horse? Is it their fertility? Their seeming ability to survive in a world where almost everything else seems to want to eat them? Their speed? Their agility?

Perhaps it's that they remind us of ourselves. Small creatures in a larger hostile world with no allies, companion of nothing, and yet able to not only survive but multiply. It's a thought — and if that is the case, it seems our ancestors might have been on the money: a recent study has shown that rabbits and hares are not as closely related to rodents as was thought, but are in fact closer to primates.

Perhaps it's just those ears. I think it's the ears.

Colophon

Originally posted by Terry McCombs to soc.religion.paganism on April 30, 2007, as the April 2007 entry in his God/dess of the Month Club. Original Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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