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 [...]

Torrin Soup for Newlyweds, From the Occitan Region of Southern France

Guest blogger, Monique Palomares works with me on Mama Lisa’s World en français. Monique grew up speaking the Occitan language in southern France. Occitan was the language spoken by the troubadours – largely in southern France – but also in parts of Spain and Italy. Last week, Monique wrote about an Occitan Wedding Custom and Song [...]

Wedding Custom and Song in Occitan from France

Guest blogger, Monique Palomares works with me on Mama Lisa's World en français. Monique grew up speaking the Occitan language in southern France. Occitan was the language spoken by the troubadours – largely in southern France – but also in parts of Spain and Italy. Recently, Peter emailed us asking about the lyrics of [...]

French and Occitan Christmas Carol Links

Here are some Carols you can find the lyrics and translations to and often an mp3, midi, score, YouTube video and French and Spanish Translations – just click the link to access them: Occitan Christmas Carols Nadal tindaire – Jingling Christmas – from Occitania Nadal tindaire – Jingling Christmas – Recording only – from Occitania Pastres, rintratz vòstrei tropèus [...]

An Occitan Poem for Autumn

Here's a short, pretty, Occitan poem to mark the start of Fall. Occitan is a language spoken in parts of southern France, Spain and Italy. It was the language of the troubadours. Monique Palomares, who works with me on Mama Lisa's World en français, sent sent the poem to me. The poem was written [...]

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. [...]

Occitan Christmas Carol – “Paure Satan”

Here's an Occitan Christmas carol sung by Monique Palomares of Mama Lisa's World en français. (Occitan is a language spoken in parts of southern France, Spain and Italy. It was the language of the troubadours.) Paure Satan is about the Devil having a hard time because of Jesus' birth. Below you'll find the [...]

Occitan Christmas Custom

Hugues Bernet is a teacher in a school in France where the Occitan language and culture are taught. (Occitan is a language spoken in parts of southern France, Spain and Italy. It was the language of the troubadours.) Hugues wrote to me about a custom they follow in his school at Christmastime. It [...]

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 [...]

Rain, Rain, What do “you” say?

Rain must hold a special place deep in the human psyche. Expressions about rain have such interesting imagery. I can't think of many words that evoke such vivid images. For instance, in English, if it's pouring out, you can say, It's raining cats and dogs. If there's thunder, some people say God is [...]