Mary had a little lamb

[a.baker]

Does that song have any history of having to do with Christianity? I got an email and it made me think.

[InTheWind]

Sure, Thomas Edison sang those lyrics into his first phonograph thus making it possible to later record Gospel music. :D

[a.baker]

Huh, interesting.

[InTheWind]

Just kidding ya though that is a fact that he sang that in the first phonograph.
As far as the lamb in that song referencing the birth of Christ i don`t know.

[a.baker]

I found it interesting.... the words sound like they could line up.... such an old song. Now a days its against the 'rule' to bring Him to school, and that line of the song would be more of a new age thing in society and wouldn't line up with how old the song is. Wasn't that long ago they used to pray in school for example.

But why was the name Mary chosen and a song about a lamb? I'm going o Wiki it and see if I find anything interesting.

[a.baker]

Here's what Wiki said.

The nursery rhyme was first published (as opposed to written) as an original poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was inspired by an actual incident.

As a girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mrs. Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb, which she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. A commotion naturally ensued. Mary recalled:

"Visiting school that morning was a young man by the name of John Roulstone, a nephew of the Reverend Lemuel Capen, who was then settled in Sterling. It was the custom then for students to prepare for college with ministers, and for this purpose Mr. Roulstone was studying with his uncle. The young man was very much pleased with the incident of the lamb; and the next day he rode across the fields on horseback to the little old schoolhouse and handed me a slip of paper which had written upon it the three original stanzas of the poem..."[1]

There are two competing theories on the origin of this poem. One holds that Roulstone wrote the first four lines and that the final twelve lines, more moralistic and much less childlike than the first, were composed by Sarah Josepha Hale; the other is that Hale was responsible for the entire poem.

Mary Sawyer's house, located in Sterling, Massachusetts, was destroyed by arson on August 12, 2007.[2] A statue representing Mary's Little Lamb stands in the town center. The Redstone School, which was built in 1798, was purchased by Henry Ford and relocated to a churchyard on the property of Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
The Redstone School, now in Sudbury, Massachusetts, is believed to be the schoolhouse mentioned in the nursery rhyme.
Inside the schoolhouse.