Jenny Van Ryswyk wrote to me asking for help with a Dutch poem from the Netherlands about a mouse and beans.  Here’s her letter: Thank you for the site. It brings many of the children’s poems to life with a clearer understanding. My parents are from Friesland and my husband’s parents from Groningen and Rotterdam (dad). My...

Rida, Rida Ranka is a rhyme and song known to many in Scandinavia and to the families of Scandinavian immigrants in the US. Lance N. Peterson wrote to me of its significance to his family. (I added links below to the versions of Rida, rida ranka he talks about.) Dear Lisa: Words are what we...

Mrs. Brein from Argentina is looking for two Dutch songs that her father sang to her when she was a child. Here is what they sounded like -the spelling is phonetical 1. Traláreche: Traláreche, traláreche, oh my muther so fader chessen, eisi bebirj, eisi bebirj, oh my muther so fader cheseen. (It was sung while turning...

Peter pointed out an online collection of traditional Dutch songs published in 1895. The site is only in Dutch. Some of the songs may have archaic language. But it may be interesting for those of you who speak the language. Thanks for letting us know about this site Peter! -Mama Lisa

Chris sent me this email: Greetings! Google led me to your website when I was looking for help. I hope this request doesn’t end up being too difficult! I’m not a fluent Dutch speaker (in fact, I know very little Dutch at all beyond the basics). But my grandmother is the daughter of a...

Elyse wrote: Does anyone know anything about an old Dutch children’s song about girls and boys picking flowers, drinking tea and sweet milk with honey, giving chickens water, and the clock striking ten? My grandmother sang it to me years ago. The title sounds like “Saitcha Fara” though no such Dutch words with those...

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,...

Gail wrote me: Greetings Lisa, I am wondering if you have ever heard of a Dutch children’s song that starts out: “In the Vintertime when the vind blows…” some of the other words were vindowpane and vestibule. It goes something like: In the wintertime when the wind blows (and something) then frost forms...

Lorraine simply wrote, regarding “Het Maria Klokje”: Do you know this song? Thanks Lorraine from Ontario Canada If anyone knows the lyrics to this song, please comment below or email me. If you can possibly provide an English translation, that would be great too. Thanks! Lisa

Sarah wrote: My father-in-law came back from Spain singing this song called “Chichiwa”, and my 5 year old son loves it, but none of us know the words. Can anyone help? I’ve been trying to find it on the internet and there are references to it on a couple of Dutch websites, but no...

Nancy wrote: Dear Lisa, Do you know this Dutch song? My mother used to sing it to our children in the 1960’s: Klap eens in je handjes, blij blij blij… Appreciate if you can let me know the rest of it and any background history you may have. Thanks, Nancy Reimers If anyone can help out with this song, and an...

We have a special circumstance where we’re looking for a Bahasa Indonesian translation of a song called Cat’s Head. The song is originally Dutch. We were able to get an English translation of it. If anyone can translate it into Bahasa Indonesian from either language, we would greatly appreciate it. Both...

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...

Kirsten Kerkhof wrote me the following about St. Nicolas Day in Holland… “In the Netherlands, Christmas is not as important for children as Sint Nicolaas (Saint Nicholas) on December 5th. It’s on this day that children get their presents, instead of on Christmas Day. Sint Nicolaas is the patron saint of children. He is said to...