May 30 – National Hole in My Bucket Day

Happy Hole in My Bucket Day!

This is an ‘unofficial’ national holiday commemorating the popular children’s song with the same name. This song has been said to be sung in Germany in the 1700’s and migrated to the United States. The song tells a story of Liza and Henry who banter back and forth about how to go about getting water when there’s a hole in the bucket. For every suggestion Liza makes, Henry has a question of how to follow her directions because of one excuse or another. The song and the story end up back at the beginning with Liza telling Henry to bring some water home in the bucket. There are many versions of this song illustrated in picture books. Here are just three that I found to get you started.

There’s a Hole in My Bucket by Bernard H. Cohen (1987)

There’s a Hole in the Bucket by Nadine Bernard Westcott (1990)

There’s a Hole in My Bucket by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert (1994)

A sing-along Sesame Street version of ‘There’s a Hole in the Bucket’ is here.