Time to celebrate a song so obscure in its origins that it is almost a conspiracy theory in itself. In fact one of the theories as to the meaning of the lyrics suggests that it refers to the Gunpowder Plot (See Guy Fawkes Day- November 5th).

Of course there are so many variations to the song itself that it is hard to say which is the original.

In England today they tend to sing it like this:

Half a pound of tuppeny rice,
Half a pound of treacle
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Every night when I get home
The monkey’s on the table,
Take a stick and knock it off,
Pop! goes the weasel

While in America we tend to sing it like this (or at least this is the version I grew up with):

All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey thought ’twas all in fun,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Wikipedia, the receptacle of all knowledge real or imagined, has at least five other variations of the song.

Origin Theories

The most prevalent explanation of the lyrics come from the version of the song that goes like this:

Up and down the City road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

It is supposedly about the poor people of London spending their money on drink at the Eagle Tavern and then having to pawn their Sunday Best for more money (you can read more here). I guess that is still better than ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ which is about the bubonic plague and death, though it makes me a little apprehensious to look up any of the other nursery rhymes from my childhood.

Celebrating the Holiday

So how does one celebrate ‘Pop Goes the Weasel Day?’ Since we can’t find who decided to make it a holiday in the first place I’m thinking you can celebrate it any darn way you please. We would not suggest drinking yourself into the poor house. Honestly, we wouldn’t suggest drinking anything stronger than root beer in any case.

Here are a few ideas that we came up with:

Since the song is so…cryptic…in the first place, we suggest making up your own lyrics that help explain why that weasel went Pop! Here is an example

All around the picnic bench,
We ask a question of the weasel
Koolaid, soda, or water with lunch?
Pop! goes the weasel.

In England they have a game they play while singing the song:

Choose one child to be the weasel. Seperate the other children into even groups (I would think at least three groups). Label each child in each group starting with 1,2,3 and so on until each child has a number. Start singing the song, the groups of children on the outside forming rings to dance around holding hands. The weasel remains in the middle. A number is called out and a child who was assigned that number goes to the middle from each of the outside rings to join the weasel. The song begins again and as soon as the line ‘Pop! Goes the weasel’ is reached everyone in the center scrambles to join one of the outside rings. The odd man out is the new weasel, the old weasel adopts the number that was called. The game continues until you are sure you will never again get that song out of your head…

If you don’t have enough children to do the game that way then mix it up with some musical chairs, have all the kids form one ring in the center. Arange chairs, one less than the number of kids, around the outside of the circle, far enough that they will have to run to get to them. When the lind ‘Pop! Goes the weasel’ is reached the kids run from the center to go sit in a chair. The child left standing is out, the circle reforms and a chair is removed. To make it more fun move the remaining chairs while the kids are circling so they won’t know where the chairs are next time ‘Pop! Goes the weasel’ is sung.

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