A common misbelief about lucky rabbit’s feet is that their origin has something to do with Easter, which celebrates the Christian belief of the resurrection of Jesus.
The holiday actually adopted the mindset of the rabbit being worshiped as a fertility goddess from older European traditions. A rabbit’s foot is still considered a token of good luck because it reminds its owner to be courageous in adverse situations.
Today, it’s more about the symbolism of what the so-called lucky rabbit’s foot represents than all the lore surrounding its origins. This belief is held by individuals in a great number of places around the world, including Europe, China, Africa, and North and South America.
In variations of this superstition, the donor rabbit must possess certain attributes, such as having been killed in a particular place, using a particular method, or by a person possessing particular attributes.
It has been suggested by Benjamin Radford that the rabbit’s foot could be connected to a European good luck charm called the Hand of Glory, a hand-cut from a hanged man and then pickled.
The belief in North American folklore may originate in the system of folk magic known as “hoodoo”. A number of strictures attached to the charm are now observed mostly in the breach, namely that it must be the left hind foot of a rabbit that was shot or otherwise captured in a cemetery.
Some sources tell that the rabbit must be taken by the full moon, and others specifying the new moon. Some say instead that the rabbit must be taken on a Friday, or a rainy Friday, or Friday the 13th.
Some sources say that the rabbit should be shot with a silver bullet, while others say that the foot must be cut off while the rabbit is still alive.
The various rituals suggested by the sources, though they differ widely one from another, share a common element of the uncanny, and the reverse of what is considered good-omened and auspicious.
A rabbit is an animal into which shape-shifting witches such as Isobel Gowdie claimed to be able to transform themselves. Witches were said to be active at the times of the full and new moons.
Rabbit’s feet were also considered lucky because of their association with the dead body of a criminal. According to Newbell Niles Puckett, a 20th-century folklorist, “the more wicked the person who is dead, the more effective the charm associated with his remains.”
Puckett observed that during the 1884 election campaign of Grover Cleveland, he was said to have received the foot of a rabbit that had been killed on the grave of Jesse James, the American outlaw.
