Sleeping Bunnies
Get ready to hop with the bunnies!
See the little bunnies sleeping till it’s nearly noon. Shall we wake them with a merry tune? They’re so still, are they ill? Wake up soon.
WAKE UP BUNNIES
Hop little bunnies hop hop hop…skip…jump…hop and stop.
To play sleeping bunnies, all the children lie down and pretend to be asleep. On “wake up bunnies” everyone jumps up and hops, skips and jumps like a bunny.
Origin
The bunny version of the song started in Germany. First published in 1840, written by Friedrich Fröbel, founder of the kindergarten concept. Titled: Häschen in der Grube (Little Bunny in the Pit) With the lyrics:
Häschen in der Grube saß und schlief, saß und schlief, armes Häschen, bist du krank… Häschen hüpf! Häschen hüpf! Häschen hüpf!
(Little bunny in the pit sat and slept, sat and slept, poor little bunny, are you sick… Bunny hop! Bunny hop! Bunny hop!)
The original game involved one child being the sleeping bunny. Surrounded by a ring of other children to form the “pit”. it then becomes a chase and catch game. See a modern version of the game here: https://youtu.be/TN6b_eh2I84
The melody is adapted from an older 1700’s folk song: Wer die Gans gestohlen hat, der ist ein Dieb (He who stole the goose is a thief).
The lyrics and the game are adapted from “Nix in der Grube" (The Nixie in the Pit) which is a German Singspiel (sing game) https://youtu.be/ScYFc_HfBHo also dating back to the 1700’s. A Nixie is a type of water sprite or nymph similar to a mermaid. Fröbel changed it to a bunny for his version. In the earlier versions, the "pit" was a well or pond where the nixie lived.
The origin of a nix (male) or nixie (female) comes from Germanic and Scandinavian mythology. One of the earliest literary appearances of the Nix is in Nibelungenlied c. 1180. where there is an encounter with two nixies in the River Danube.
There is a Norse version known as the Völsunga Saga (The Saga of the Volsungs).
The idea of Nixies evolved from nicors that first appear in Beowulf (700AD) to refer to a lake monster. In some old english translations from latin, Nicor was a word for hippopotamus or crocodile. There is also a nursery rhyme called: sleeping crocodiles!
Sleeping bunnies has been evolving for hundreds of years, but doesn’t actually appear in English until 1935, where it was adapted from the German version in “Music for the nursery school" by Linda Chesterman.
Where it is titled “Little Bunny (From the German)” with the lyrics:
See the little bunny sleeping, Till it’s nearly noon, Come and let us gently wake him, With a merry tune. Oh how still! Is he ill? Wake up soon. Hop Little bunny, Hop, hop, hop. Hop Little bunny, Hop, hop, hop.
The book also includes instructions for a game: “One child crouched as a sleeping bunny, the children creep forward on tip toe and form a ring around him, singing very softly. (A whisper is good practice) They raise their linked hands and the bunny hops out from the ring.”
This song then evolved in English to become known as “Sleeping Bunnies” and the game now involves all children pretending to be bunnies. To keep the game going, the singer can add more actions.
For the little woolly vision version, we included hop, skip, jump and one more lot of hops (to rhyme with stop)
Look out for the bunnies painting which is a bunny version of René Magritte’s famous 1964 painting: The Son of Man (Le fils de l'homme) which features a man and an apple rather than a rabbit and a carrot.
The style of the rabbits and their house was inspired by paintings by Molly Brett
Bunny vs Rabbit ?
Today both words mean the same animal, but rabbit is the official name and bunny means a cute rabbit. The original word for rabbit was coney and rabbit meant the baby. Now a baby rabbit is called a kit. Bunny comes from the word bun, a nickname for a squirrel or rabbits’ tail, which came to be a cute nickname for people, which then became a cute nickname for rabbits.
The Easter Bunny
Rabbits and the March Hare have long been a symbol of spring. Like the origins of sleeping bunnies, the modern chocolate egg leaving bunny comes from Germany, known as the “Osterhase” (Easter Hare).
Video Credits:
Produced by Sarah Simi & Ed Hartwell (Woolly Vision)
Animation and Direction: Ed Hartwell
Art Direction: Sarah Simi
Puppets by Leeanne Bell
Set by Leeanne Bell
Additional props by Malia Drye
Music performed by Gemma Storr
Recorded by Steve Pretty
Music available on all major streaming platforms now:
Apple Music: (USA) (UK)
Spotify
Amazon
Deezer
Tidal
Watch our playlists:
• Teddy Bear Films
• All Little Woolly Vision Films
• Bed Time Songs and Lullabies
• Animal Songs
• Songs and Crafts