This Christmas song was sent to us from the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.  It’s sung throughout the Portuguese speaking world. The carol starts with a child leaving his shoe on the windowsill outside. In Portugal, children do this for the Epiphany (the day that celebrates the Three Kings’ visit to Jesus). Children leave straw and...

Amber wrote: Hello, I was wondering if you knew any titles of children’s books that are written in Portuguese? I teach a class of two year olds and one of my students has a birthday coming up soon and I want to get her some books. She’s from Brazil and speaks Portuguese. Of...

Jeringonza (aka jerigonza) is played in Spain and throughout Latin America. It’s also found in Portuguese speaking Brazil and even in Italy. It’s a secret language for kids – just like the English word game Pig Latin. (I’m going to make all the changes to the words in bold below to help...

Cyndi wrote asking about a rhyme from her grandmother… Lisa, My grandmother always said the same nursery rhyme. She has recently passed away and I would love to know what it means. Words (I am not sure of the spelling), this was not an English rhyme. It is believed to have been Portuguese, but I am not...

Ellen wrote: I’m looking for the origin of a song entitled “Sambalale.” It’s about a boy who is a show off and is trying to get a mango out of a tree. Raffi credits it to Brazil but I can’t find anything on this. It’s one of my preschool favorites. E. Harold-Stein If anyone can...

Teresa wrote: I would love to buy a cd with all those Portuguese nursery rhymes. I have been trying to search on the net and I just can not find anything. Any ideas on how to get the cd with songs featured in your home page. Thanks Teresa I found a couple of Portuguese Children’s cd’s on CD Baby....

I received this note yesterday: Hi, I was wondering if anyone could suggest a nursery rhyme, song or quite from a classic children’s book that is in Portuguese. I am doing my sister-in-law’s baby shower invite and would love to put something like this on there, in her language. Thank you If anyone can help out, please comment below. Thanks! Lisa

Larraine wrote to me looking for Scouting Campfire Songs from around the world. Here’s what she wrote, followed by my response with some suggested songs and sites to go to for help: Dear Mama Lisa, It has been suggested that I contact you with my request. I am the sketch producer of “The Live Wyre...

While I have this link at hand, I’d like to recommend www.freedict.com. It’s a site devoted to free online language dictionaries. You can translate between English and the following languages: Afrikaans Danish Dutch Finnish French Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Latin Norwegian Portuguese Russian Spanish Swahili Swedish I find that it can usually succeed at translating the words I need. Feel free to recommend other language dictionaries that you like in the...

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...

Here’s a lullaby in Portuguese (possibly from Brazil), with an English translation… Nana, nenê, na casa do vovo, vovô não tem cochão, o nenê dorme no chão Sleep, baby At grandpa’s house Grandpa doesn’t have a mattress The baby sleeps on the ground. If anyone knows the tune and can send me a recording, midi or sheet music, please email me. I also...

The Carnival in Brazil is held during the days before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Lent. Here’s a Brazilian folk song about the Carnival called Mama Paquita. James sent this song in English… Mama Paquita Mama Paquita, Mama Paquita, Mama Paquita, buy your baby a papaya A ripe papaya and a banana, A ripe papaya...