04/29/2008 08:43 PM

Does Anyone Know a Dutch Children’s Song the Title of which Sounds like “Saitcha Fara”?

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 [...]

12/29/2007 10:48 PM

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, [...]

10/31/2007 09:43 AM

Can Anyone Help with a Dutch Song that goes “In the Vintertime when the vind blows…”?

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 [...]

07/15/2007 03:23 PM

Does Anyone Know the Dutch Song “Het Maria Klokje”?

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

06/26/2007 08:52 PM

Does Anyone Know a Song, Possibly from Spain, called “Chichiwa”?

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 [...]

03/19/2007 08:40 PM

Does Anyone Know the Dutch Song, “Klap eens in je handjes, blij blij blij”?

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 [...]

03/18/2007 10:21 AM

Can Anyone Help with an Bahasa Indonesian Translation of a Little Song Called Cat’s Head?

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 [...]

01/06/2007 08:35 PM

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. [...]

12/22/2006 10:39 AM

Free Online Language Dictionaries

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 [...]

12/04/2005 10:48 AM

St. Nicholas Arrives in Holland on a Steamboat with his White Horse

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 [...]