Children, Go Where I Send Thee: Is it Really a Christmas Number?

One of my favorite numbers is the spiritual Children, Go Where I Send Thee, and the use of the word “number” here is not accidental!  Since it creates a kind of rhyming game with numbers, referring to it as a “number,” a synonym for “song,” seems appropriate.  It’s rhythmic, fast, playful, entertaining, but is it really a song for Christmas?

That’s hard to say because no one knows anything about the origins of the song.  It sprang into being, as true folksongs do, out of the everyday lives of ordinary people, in this case enslaved African Americans, and just seems to been, well, around.  Some give credit for its revival in the 1950s by Kentucky folk singer and song collector Jean Ritchie, who may have heard it sung by a group of school children.

Here she is singing it as if it were an Appalachian folksong.

But there are several recordings of the number from the mid-‘30s and early ‘40s that pre-date her activities, so it was already in circulation.  Some think it might be a kind of counting/rhyming game (I lean toward this one), others that it served as a kind of biblical education for slaves who couldn’t read, although it’s hard to figure out what it teaches.  I’ve even heard it referred to as a missionary song since it “sends” out the listeners, rather like a sung sermon.  Maybe African American preachers were something of a model, with their dynamically rhythmic delivery!

It riffs on rhyming numbers with words—except when it doesn’t—and like most folksongs there are many variants.  The “three for the Hebrew children” sometimes occurs as “three for the three men riding,” “eight for the eight that stood at the gate” can become the eight that “sealed their fate,” the nine who dressed so fine are sometimes turned into the nine who stood in line, and the number “five” becomes quite creative: “five for the five who came out alive,” or “came back alive,” or even “five for the Gospel preachers.”

No one knows how to interpret these numbers either, although some claim to, especially online bloggers.  Some of the meanings are clear, such as Jesus as the little bitty baby, ten for the Ten Commandments, twelve for the twelve disciples (or apostles, take your pick).  But beyond that it is purely speculative.  Some say that the “three” are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego escaping from the fiery furnace, or the three Magi who brought their gifts to the Christ Child.  The “four” have been styled as the men who let the paralytic down through the roof to be healed by Jesus, or as the Four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), although they run into trouble when the “five” have also been styled as the Four Evangelists plus Peter.  Some think the “eight” represents those who made it into Noah’s ark.  But when it comes to the other numbers the guesses are wide open.  The  “six who never got fixed” (or “picked” as I’ve sometimes seen it) really has interpreters flummoxed!   One writer thinks it may stand for the jars of water converted by Jesus to wine at the wedding...could work, I guess.  And “guess” is the appropriate word here!

The upshot is, the only connection between Christmas and Children, Go Where I Send Thee is the” little bitty baby born in Bethlehem.”  But that is connection enough to make it appropriate for Christmas, or anytime for that matter.  Master Chorus Eastside is singing my own fast-paced arrangement of it in our Christmas concerts.  We hope to have it on YouTube soon, but until then, here is a dynamite rendition from the ‘60s by a duo called Joe and Eddy.  Their performance here is rhythmically intricate, dynamic, and riveting. I’ve watched it three times, and I am in awe of what they created.  Tragically Joe was killed in a car crash in 1966, which brought an abrupt end to their budding career.  It’s really unfortunate; they were extraordinary performers.

Enjoy!

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic Director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside