Talk:London Bridge Is Falling Down
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Hi all!
I remember playing this as a small child. The way we played was that two (usu. girls) would clasp hands held high, forming an arch and all would sing, "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down,...my fair lady." And during this time other children would pass underneath. When we reached the part of the second verse "lock her up" the arch would fall and "lock up" the child who happened to be passing through.
Did anyone else play this game as a child and do you remember if there was anything else involved? And -- where are you from, where did you play this? I am from North Carolina, in the US. JH
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[edit] The song in Scandinavian traditions
London bridge? In Scandinavia we have this song in many different variants, and it is played in the same way as described in this article. But it is never said that it is about "London bridge". It is rather the bridge to hell.
[edit] Song Title
"Is" should be capitalized in this song's title, as it is a verb.
[edit] Dead Virgin in the Foundation
Nonsense obviously, but where does this theory come from? In the Topping out ceremony, in the UK and USA, a tree is sometimes placed on the roof of tall buildings Columbia University. This is a guardian spirit, protecting the building. Also, there are over 1,000 instances of archeologists finding shoes hidden in the fireplace of buildings. This appears to date back to about 1540. There is an example from the Czech Republic, from c 1360 Concealed Shoes. Going back to Vedic times (and possibly Rome and Greece), a dog, goat or sheep was put into the foundations of important large buildings Vedic Ceremonies. From there, it is a small imaginative leap to claim that virgins must be buried in bridges. See also [Mithriac ceremonies. There is no evidence for the virgin business, yet, on the first website in the "External links" section, the nonesense is repeated - Nursery Rhymes, claiming that children were buried. Oh dear. I would put all this into the article itself, but it's a bit cumbersome, and extremely remote from the supposed topic - London Bridge. A similar claim is made in the book "Folk Music" by Norm Cohen (2005) (Greenwood Press), on page 35, relating to the song "London Bridge is Falling Down". Maybe somebody had read that book and extrapolated the rest. Ogg 19:45, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
I agree the theory leaves one to ask where the information comes from. The "Meaning" section requires some citations for their bold claims. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.52.20.230 (talk) 22:30, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] London Bridge in the Midwest
I grew up in the southeastern part of Iowa, in the US, and I also remember playing a London Bridge game when I was a small child- 3 or 4 years old -with the other children of my preschool/daycare class.
This is the way we played: Two children would face each other and clasp their hands above their heads in the shape of an arch, while the other children would walk underneath during the first verse of the song. Once we got to the second verse, the arch would "capture" whoever was underneath at the time. The two children who had formed the arch would then swing their arms back and forth so that the captured child was somewhat tossed around.
That's as much as I can remember- I think after we finished the second verse the game was over, and we restarted. --Holtkca (talk) 06:13, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
