Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Your Head

DESCRIPTION: "Heavy, heavy hangs over your head, What are you going to do with it?" Or, "Heavy, heavy hang over the head. What should this boy do to get back his ring?" "He must sit on the couch with --- and kiss her every time I tell him to do so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #88, "Redeeming Forfeits" (assorted short rhymes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 43, "Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over You Head" (1 text, filed under "A Note on the Games of Adolescents")
MidwestFolklore, Brian Sutton-Smith, "The Kissing Games of Adolescents in Ohio," Volume 9, Number 4 (Winter 1959) pp. 196-197, "Heavy, Heavy Hang Over the Head" (1 text)
Roud #19434
NOTES [85 words]: Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren lists this among rhymes for redeeming forfeits. Solomon-ZickaryZan calls it a kissing game, and Sutton-Smith also lists it as such (while also perhaps recovering an artifact taken to identify the players). But my mother's family tradition (from Michigan) had it as a sort of a game, perhaps for birthdays: An object (gift, whatever) is placed over a child's head so that he cannot see it. The question is asked, and the child has to guess what to do with the object. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Newe088

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