J is for Jack Jumped

        (My theme for this year’s A to Z Blog Challenge is traditional English language nursery rhymes, and their block printed illustrations.  Also, I need to say that I have been incredibly frustrated this year by other blogs not taking my comments.  I have been visiting dozens of blogs and leaving comments which, if I do say so myself, are full of wit and wisdom, fascinating relevant content, and cheerful encouragement… and yet at least half the time they seem to disappear into the ether after I hit “post,” and fail to show up on your blogs.  So please believe that I have been visiting your blog and enthusing over it in the comments, but apparently to no avail.  I will keep trying.)

Jack, be nimble!  Jack, be quick!

Jack jumped over the candlestick!

        This is why parents have to love their children unconditionally.

        With only two short lines, the question is Why?  What’s going on here, anyway?  It was trying to imagine a scenario in which this was plausible that led me to my illustration.  Most illustrations place the candlestick on the floor for ease of jumping, but really, who puts a candlestick on the floor?  So I left my candle on the table where it belongs, and put Jack up there, too, where he definitely doesn’t belong, much to his mother’s dismay.

        Apparently this not an entirely random rhyme, however.  It is plausible that the rhyme derives from a custom of jumping over a candle at fairs or wedding feasts.  If you jumped over without extinguishing the flame, you would have good luck for the coming year.  If the flame went out, you were in trouble.  Presumably also in trouble if you burnt yourself, or knocked the candle over and burnt down the hall, although no one seems to mention that possibility.  Sometimes it doesn’t take a psychic to point out misfortune.

        As for nimble Jack himself, he could be any Tom, Dick, or Harry.  Jack, which originally was a nickname of John, Jacob, or other J names, was so common and ordinary that it was used to refer to any man and to Everyman.  Think of phrases such as “Jack in the box,” “Jack in the pulpit,”  “Jack of all trades,” “Jack-o’-lantern,” and “lumberjack.”  There are certainly lots of other Jacks in nursery rhymes, as well, some of whom we will meet as we proceed through the alphabet, so keep your eyes open for them.

        As one of the most popular baby names in English-speaking countries for the entire twenty-first century so far, Jacks are everywhere.  How many of you have an immediate family member called Jack, or are a Jack yourself?

        A final note for impressionable children: Never jump over a lighted candle unattended.

[Pictures: Jack, Be Nimble, rubber block print by AEGN, 2002;

Wood block print by Joan Hassall, c 1955 (Image from Opie, The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book);

Illustration from Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes, published by George Routledge and Sons, 1877 (Image from Internet Archive).]