The Biddenham Rabbit is a whimsical and ancient ceremony that might seem too absurd to be real. Once a year, on September 22nd, the residents of Biddenham, Bedfordshire, would hold a formal procession through the village. However, instead of a military hero or a prominent local figure, the star of the event was a white rabbit.
During this yearly parade, the rabbit, adorned with red ribbons for visibility, was escorted through the village just before noon. As it passed, the villagers would sing a hymn, in honour of St. Agatha. Even more peculiar, any single women who saw the rabbit would salute it with the first two fingers of their left hands while singing:
“Gustin, Gustin, lacks a bier!
Maidens, maidens, bury him here.”
This unique tradition is believed to have begun in 1096 (from the first crusade), but faded away in the latter half of the 19th century. Frustratingly, as with many such ancient customs, the meaning has been lost.
Scholars like John Gregorson Campbell suggest the ceremony is a form of “reverential burying” of a rabbit or hare, possibly a remnant of pagan ritual tied to animal symbolism.
The tradition was declared as a “curious custom… its origin is shrouded in obscurity” by researchers in the late 19th century.
Rabbits and hares in folklore often symbolise fertility, purity, or act as totemic or protective figures. The chant invites maidens to “bury” the rabbit—this may symbolise funerary or fertility rites, or acknowledge the rabbit’s symbolic “death” or transformation, echoed in similar Celtic traditions.
The “Gustin” appears to be essentially a fanciful name or incantation, not a nod to a historical figure. The focus was the act of ritual burial, reinforcing communal bonds and perhaps fertility symbolism—rather than commemorating an individual.
This story can be found in Old English Customs Extant at the Present Time; an Account of Local Observances by the Reverend Peter Hampson Ditchfield.
