Hey, diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
History:
1. Classified as a nonsense rhyme, these verses were put together purely to rhyme with each other.
2. In astonomy all (nearly all) the characters in the rhyme are visible in the night sky in the month of April (planting season). This was a rhyme to remind early Europeans (primarily those in England) it was time to plant the crops.
CAT - Leo
FIDDLE - Lyra
COW - Taurus
MOON - literally the MOON
LITTLE DOG - Canis Minor
THE DISH - Constellation Crater
THE SPOON - The Big Dipper (Ursa Major)Here is the sky map calculated for London, UK on April 4 at 10:00 PM.
Note:
THE CAT (LEO) in the upper center, THE FIDDLE (LYRA) near the edge at about 5 O'Clock
THE COW ( TAURUS) at about 8 O'Clock on the edge
LITTLE DOG (CANIS MINOR )at about 10 O'Clock
THE DISH (CRATER) near the edge near 12 O'Clock
THE SPOON / (THE BIG DIPPER [URSA MAJOR] ) just below and to the right of dead center.
* Information supplied by Tom Caulley