Pennsylvania Dutch Version of Dies Ist der Daumen – This Is the Thumb
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Pennsylvania Dutch Version of Dies Ist der Daumen – This Is the Thumb
Saturday, October 17th, 2009I’ve been asked several times for the Pennsylvania Dutch Version of the German rhyme Dies Ist der Daumen – This Is the Thumb. Today I received the version below thanks to Luke and Mary Martin. Here’s what Luke wrote…
My wife and I are also familiar with many of the German songs. This morning while looking for them, I found the finger rhyme, and your question about the Pennsylvania German variation. This is the song my father used to sing to us – seven children. Pennsylvania German has many varieties of spelling, and perhaps you can sharpen up the spelling. (My wife, Mary, and I worked at the pronunciation and spelling of the Pennsylvania German Finger Song. Mary grew up speaking Pennsylvania German.) Here it goes…
Des ist die Daume
Des ist die Daume
Der schittelt die Plaume
Der laest sie ouf
Der traught sie Haem
Und des glae Bopplemaul
Bopplet alles mit’n ahnna da Haem.This is the thumb.
This [one] shakes the plums,
This [one] picks them up,
This [one] brings them home,
And this little tattletale tells everyone at home.It was always spoken, not sung.
Thanks for your work in collecting old songs.
Luke Martin
(Pennsylvania)If anyone would like to give other variations of the spelling, feel free to in the comments below. Many thanks to Luke Martin for sending this version of the rhyme to us!
Enjoy!
Mama Lisa
Easter Customs in Germany
Thursday, March 13th, 2008Christine von Kannen-Balgar sent me this fascinating letter, answering some questions I had about Easter customs in Germany:
Dear Lisa,
To answer to your e-mail:
1) I’ve never heard of a German custom of eating green eggs on Maundy (Green Thursday) [scroll down to the discussion of Green Dyes to see what Christine is referring to - Lisa].
2) In Germany the Catholics used to eat green vegetables on Green Thursday (and maybe also the Lutherans/Protestants).
Well, nowadays almost everything has changed! I shall try to explain to you about Maundy, Lent and Easter (and the Easter Bunny) in Germany.
What you are talking of was a matter of religion. In North Rhine Westphalia, where I come from, and in most parts of south Germany most people were Catholics, so is/was my family. When I was a child or young girl (and I am 63 now) we used to “lent”, which means that the children did not eat sweets. We collected all sweets we got in a big glass, and on Easter Sunday, when Lent was over, we put it into our “Easter baskets” with the other sweets and EGGS. The “Easter Bunny” brings little children eggs and all Easter sweets! I think nobody really knows where this custom came from. Though it is known that the Easter Bunny first became popular in Germany in the 16th century.
People in Germany also make Easter trees. They hollow out eggs, dye them and hang them on shrubs or trees.
Lent started on Ash Wednesday, the day after Carnival and ended on Easter Sunday (do you know that in Germany we have an “Easter Monday”, which is a holiday – no work?!).
On Green Thursday we used to eat spinach or green cabbage (it is a green kind/sort of cabbage) or brussels sprouts. Or any other green vegetable you can think of (winter vegetables – as you’ve written in your e-mail). But not eggs!
I don’t know what had been the custom in the 18th or 19th century, but since the beginning of the 20th century (my grandparents were born between 1874 – 1887) we have known this custom of green vegetables on Maundy. I never heart about eating green eggs on Maundy.
We eat eggs on Easter.
On Good Friday or Good Saturday we boil the eggs (they must be hard boiled, so that you can keep them for a few days). Then we colour them red, blue, yellow, green etc. or speckled with special “Easter Eggs Colouring”.
On Good Friday we used to eat fish or anything else, but never meat – a “law” of the Catholic Church.
So the Catholics were not allowed at all to eat meat on Fridays (according to Church Law, which is not a law given by Jesus but by the Institution of the Catholic Church!). But you might know that. As I said, custom and things change. Nowadays, almost nobody cares for that. We all eat meat on a Friday, and maybe this Church Law was given up!? I don’t know. But we still eat coloured eggs on Easter and give eggs, together with sweets, in a little basket, to children, sometimes also to adults.
Best wishes from Old Germany
ChristineThanks for sharing information about your customs in Germany with us Christine! Many of our customs in the US are the same. I believe a lot of them came here through the Pennsylvania Dutch (German immigrants to America).
Recently, I’ve even started to see Easter trees here too. I believe that’s a new custom.
If anyone knows more about the custom of eating green Easter eggs in Germany on Green Thursday, or if you’d like to share your customs with us, feel free to comment below or email me.
Happy Easter!
Mama Lisa
Can Someone Help with the Pennsylvania Dutch Version of “Silent Night” ASAP?
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008Pastor Richard Lowe wrote:
One of the members of one of the churches I pastor went to be with with the Lord suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday. He once sang the first verse of Silent Night in church in Pa Dutch. I do not remember it as the German pronunciations I had heard previously. Would anyone be able to share a ‘phonic’ representation of this for me? I would like to remember in sharing at the service of life and resurrection Friday Mar 7, 2008.
If anyone can help Pastor Lowe, please comment below.
Thanks in advance.
-Lisa
Multilingual Kids Books on the Web
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008I’ve been asked twice in the past week for free multilingual books.
Here’s a link I found called Books in Multiple Languages. They have English children’s books with translations in Spanish, French, Polish, Italian, Romanian, German, Chinese, Finnish, Swedish, Maori, Greek, Dutch, Farsi (Persian), Afrikaans, Croatian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Pennsylvania Dutch, Sloven, Indonesian, Malaysian, Hungarian, Dari, Hindi and Filipino.
If anyone knows of any other good multilingual book links, feel free to let us know about it in the comments below.
Someone was also looking for children’s books with animal sounds around the world. There’s one called Who Says a Dog Goes Bow Wow? by Hank de Zutter. You can click the link to see it on Amazon.
-Mama Lisa
An Amish Children’s Song to the Tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Previously, I wrote about how my family and I toured the Amish country in Pennsylvania. While there, I was lucky enough to be put in contact with a young Amish lady (she may have been in her late teens) who was willing to give me an Amish song for Mama Lisa’s World, my site of children’s songs from around the world.
The Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of German. They reject much of modern technology and they live somewhat apart from the outside world. They are a very private people, and I wasn’t sure how much it was appropriate for me to ask for.
The lady asked if I wanted a song like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (which I’ll refer to herein as TTLS). I said that was exactly the type of song I was looking for. She said they had a song in Pennsylvania Dutch that’s to the tune of TTLS, but that is not a translation of it.
I told her that was not unusal. TTLS is well known all over the world. Some versions are direct translations from English, but some have totally different lyrics. For instance, the version from Spain is about a bell. Her eyes lit up and she was very interested.
I also told her how Mozart wrote classical music to the tune of TTLS. But she wasn’t familiar with Mozart.
Then the lady told me that the Amish learn their version in school. It’s in a little brown book they use. She asked me how many verses I’d like for her to write down. I told her as many as she’d like.
Well I admit I was a little nervous about scaring her away, as I’ve never engaged in a long conversation with an Amish person. I wanted to be honest about where I was using the song, how I was going to put the song on my web site. That led to an interesting little conversation about the web. Did she know about the internet? Yes she did. Had she ever been on it? No she hadn’t. But she was interested. I was afraid of saying too much. She did work with non-Amish people so she must have been somewhat used to people talking about the rest of the world. But I didn’t want to overstep any boundaries.
Finally, I told the lady that I usually thank people on my site for contributing songs. Would she like me to thank her, even using only her first name? Otherwise, I could post it from anonymous. She chose to remain anonymous. I’m still grateful for the experience of having spoken with her and that she spent the time with me and shared an Amish song with all of us on the internet!
Click the following link if you’d like to see the Amish Children’s Song that the young lady gave me.
-Mama Lisa
________
Copyright ©2009 by Lisa Yannucci. All rights reserved.
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