To market, to market

"To Market, To Market" or "To Market, To Market, to Buy a Fat Pig" is a folk nursery rhyme which is based upon the traditional rural activity of going to a market or fair where agricultural produce would be bought and sold. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19708.

Lyrics

The first complete recorded version of the rhyme appeared in 1805 in Songs for the Nursery as "To market, to market, to buy a penny bun," with no reference to a pig.
A common variation in the present day is:
There have been many variations such as this reworking:

Origins

The rhyme is first recorded in part in John Florio's, A Worlde of Wordes, or Most Copious, and exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, published in 1598, which defines "Abomba" as "a man's home or resting place: home againe, home againe." The 1611 edition is even clearer, referring to "the place where children playing hide themselves... Also as we used to say Home againe home againe, market is done." We do not have records again until the following version was printed in Songs for the Nursery :