What does this little piggy went to market
What Is the Story Behind This Little Piggy?
(Last Updated On: September 13, 2022)
You may remember a nursery rhyme by the name of This Little Piggy from your childhood. Like many similar stories told to young children, this one also incorporated farm animals. This Little Piggy is originally an English nursery rhyme, but has been told in different languages around the world.
The beginning of what we know today as This Little Piggy was originally incorporated in a 1728 melody called “The Nurse’s Song.” However, it was not until 1760 that the full version of This Little Piggy was published in “The Famous Tommy Thumb’s Little Story-Book”. Though the original author of the rhyme is unknown, it is usually attributed to fictional story-teller Mother Goose.
As is the case with any old nursery rhyme, there are bound to be alterations and different versions as time progresses. But this one has interestingly remained pretty much the same throughout its history, with typically only a word or two being changed.
The most common version of This Little Piggy goes like this:
Fingerplay and This Little PiggyThis little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried “wee, wee, wee” all the way home.
With the progression of time, one of the most popular activities to do when singing this nursery rhyme was incorporating each toe on a baby’s foot into the rhyme. This is a great example of fingerplay (toeplay?). The most common actions associated with each line of the story is as follows.
- This little piggy went to market – Wiggle the child’s big toe.
- This little piggy stayed at home – Wiggle the child’s second toe.
- This little piggy had roast beef – Wiggle the child’s middle toe.
- This little piggy had none – Wiggle the child’s fourth toe.
- And this little piggy went “wee, wee, wee” all the way home – This is the part of the rhyme when you tickle the bottom of the child’s foot.
The early years of development for young babies are crucial to their understanding of coordination and dexterity. A very common way of increasing a child’s ability to memorize and form coherent story-telling skills is through the act of fingerplays. This is when actions are added to a rhyme or poem to help a child further learn the words. Fingerplays have been used to teach reading, colors, and counting. The most common example is using the hand to count to ten.
Interested in learning about other nursery rhymes? Check out this quiz.
An Unexpected Interpretation?One of the things parents tend to leave out when telling nursery rhymes to their children is the potentially dark and dreary backstories behind them. In the case of This Little Piggy, it isn’t too hard to spot the darker interpretation.
Think about a “piggy going to the market”. Some have interpreted this to mean that the pig is going to market for slaughter. Working off this then, the “little piggy staying home” refers to a pig not yet ready to eat, and that must stay home to mature. The “little piggy having roast beef” is about fattening a pig up, while the fourth “piggy that gets none” is too small to go to the market. And perhaps most dark, that final little piggy is not singing “wee, wee, wee”, but crying it in fright.
What an incredibly dark scene to play out on a child’s toes!
So, the question remains: is This Little Piggy an innocent rhyme to teach children about their extremities, or an ominous poem about pigs to slaughter? Considering some of the most famous nursery rhymes have a “darker interpretation”, the answer is most likely both.
Curious about where other nursery rhymes came from? Check out these articles.
- What Is the Story Behind Hickory Dickory Dock?
- What Is the Story Behind Hey Diddle Diddle?
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Behind the Meaning of the Children's Song “This Little Piggy” -
“This Little Piggy” may very well be the first song we hear and learn as children.
Whether using your fingers or your toes, the cute little song is sung to us early on as cooing parents bond with their newborns. Your pinky becomes a protagonist. Your index and ring fingers become players in the performance.
It’s enough to put a loving smile on the face of any infant.
And here we’ll dive into the meaning of teaching different roles in the song and its origins. So, without further ado, let’s do just that.
Origin Meaning“This Little Piggy” is an English-language nursery rhyme that is both sung and played with a child’s fingers or toes.
In 1728, the first line of the rhyme appeared in a medley song called “The Nurses Song.” And the first known full version was recorded in The Famous Tommy Thumb’s Little Story-Book, which arrived first in London in 1760.
In that version, the rhyme goes:
This pig went to market,
That pig stayed home;
This pig had roast meat,
That pig had none;
This pig went to the barn’s door,
And cried week, week for more.
[RELATED: Behind the Meaning of the Classic Nursery Rhyme “Jack and Jill”]
Evolution of the PiggiesThe ditty began to appear more and in evolved ways over the years. In 1922, the rhyme was included in Beatrix Potter’s illustrated book Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes.
Slight variations began to pop up in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that “little pigs” became “little piggies,” making the rhyme even more cutesy.
Today the most commonly known version goes:
This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
This little piggy cried “Wee! Wee! Wee!” all the way home.
Using the above version of the song, parents often perform the rhyme using finger or toe play, each line corresponding to a different digit on the hand or foot, with a foot tickle done at the very end.
For example:
This little piggy went to market, (Wiggle the “big” toe)
This little piggy stayed home, (Wiggle the “long” toe)
This little piggy had roast beef, (Wiggle the “middle” toe)
This little piggy had none, (Wiggle the “ring” toe)
This little piggy cried “Wee! Wee! Wee!” all the way home. (Wiggle the “little” toe and tickle the bottom of the foot)
[RELATED: Behind the Meaning and History of the Nursery Rhyme “Three Blind Mice”]
Final ThoughtsThe nursery rhyme achieves several things at once.
First, it’s a fun, interactive rhyme that can bond parents and children. Second, the rhyme teaches very rudimentary counting and the understanding of individual fingers and toes. Third, the rhyme, which was the 8th most popular nursery rhyme in 2009, according to a survey done in the U.K., teaches about different roles. One piggy goes to the market. One piggy eats. One doesn’t.
One goes home. These are all separate, individual actions, reinforcing the idea of individuality to young children.
Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images
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