Signs of Spring

It's amazing that people over 5000 years ago knew enough about astronomy and the seasons to create a cave and have specific chambers within it be lit up by the sun only on specific days of the year… specifically on the solstices and equinoxes. I'm talking about the Loughcrew Megalithic Cairns in Ireland.   Michael from Newgrange.com [...]

Mama Lisa Now Has a Facebook Group

We'd love it if you'd join the Mama Lisa Facebook Group. You can post anything you'd like about your culture. You can post your own musical recordings or YouTube videos… Links to culture and musical sites… Photos of your country… Questions about songs or cultural issues… Anything related to World Culture and [...]

Can Anyone Help with a Short Irish Lullaby?

I received this email today… I am desperately searching for any words to any short Irish lullaby. A friend of my is pregnant and I want to put the lullaby on fabric for her as a baby shower present. Thank you so much for your time. I asked my colleague, Monique, in France, if she had [...]

Looking for Specific Translation to Tum balalaika

Tum balalaika is a Yiddish folk song. John Ringo wrote me that he was looking for help finding a version from his childhood that's different than the one we have posted (click the link for our version). Here's what he wrote… I was actually looking for a set of lyrics to this I remember [...]

Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years

In many parts of the world, the foods eaten on New Years Eve and New Years Day have important symbolic meanings. These symbols seem to fall into several major categories. The first class symbolizes financial prosperity. This type of food is round like coins. Often, the dish will be round beans, like lentils, [...]

Happy Saint Stephen's Day

Ed Gawlinski pointed out that today is St. Stephen's Day. He wrote… St. Stephen's Day, or the Feast of St. Stephen, is a Christian saint's day celebrated on December 26th in the Western Church and December 27th in the Eastern Church. In Irish it is called Lá Fhéile Stiofán or Lá an Dreoilín – the latter [...]

A Little about Limericks

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, here's a little information about limericks. A limerick is a five-line poem, with the rhyming pattern A-A-B-B-A. In other words, lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme with each other. They usually have 7-11 syllables per line. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other and have 5-8 syllables per [...]

Spanish Translations of English Children's Songs

Jackie wrote us looking for some Spanish versions of English songs. Online, at Mama Lisa's World, we already have Itzi, bitzi araña, which is the Spanish version of Itsy Bitsy Spider. There's also Estrellita, which is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in Spanish. You can click on the links for the lyrics in [...]

How to Find Sheet Music, Tunes and MP3's on Mama Lisa's World

In addition to this blog, I also host Mama Lisa's World. Mama Lisa's World is a large collection of children's songs and rhymes from countries all around the globe. Matt, a music teacher from Rhode Island, wrote a question to me, the other day, about Mama Lisa's World: Hey Mama, I love the concept of your site. [...]

Mama Lisa's World News and Multimedia Features

A significant part of the Mama Lisa sites is a large collection of songs and nursery rhymes from around the world. We currently have about 750 songs from around 90 countries and cultures. When you consider how many languages there are in those cultures – that's a lot of information! In order to make [...]