How to Play Miss Mary Mack (Plus History & Meaning)

Clap your hands and sing-a-long to “Miss Mary Mack”

Co-authored by Maryana Lucia Vestic, MFA, M.Phil.

Last Updated: August 25, 2026 Fact Checked

Lyrics

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How to Play

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Origin & Meaning

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Other Hand-Clapping Games

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Video

Miss Mary Mack is a classic children’s clapping game where kids sing along to a nursery rhyme of the same name. Are you feeling nostalgic about this old favorite among children’s games? Maybe you want to explain it to your own children or teach them how to play. Look ahead for step-by-step clapping instructions on how to play Miss Mary Mack, along with information about its origin, meaning, and variations.

How to Play Miss Mary Mack: Visual Guide

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To play Miss Mary Mack, face your partner and perform the 4-beat clapping pattern while singing the famous chant. Here is the basic clapping pattern:

Cross your arms in front of your chest, gently tap your shoulders, then uncross your arms and pat your thighs.
Clap your hands together in front of your chest, then cross your right hand across your body to clap your partner’s right hand.
Uncross and clap both of your hands together with your partner’s hand, and repeat this pattern throughout the whole song.

Section 1 of 4:

“Miss Mary Mack” Lyrics

(American version)

“Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back (or “Up and down her back, back, back”)
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For 50 cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence
They jumped so high, high, high
They reached the sky, sky, sky
And didn’t (or never) come back, back, back (or come down, down, down)
Till the 4th of July-ly-ly.”^{[1]
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(Alternate Canadian verse)

“She could not read, read, read
She could not write, write, write
But she could smoke, smoke, smoke
Her father’s pipe, pipe, pipe.”^{[2]
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(Alternative American South verse)

“Mary Mack
Dressed in black
Silver buttons all down her back.
She combed her hair
And broke the comb.
She’s gonna get a whoopin’ when her Momma comes home
Gonna get a whoopin’ when her Momma comes home.”^{[3]
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Section 2 of 4:

How to Play Miss Mary Mack

You can both sit or stand facing each other and clap while singing along to the lyrics of “Miss Mary Mack.”^{[4]
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Research source} Once you can perform the basic steps, keep practicing until you and your partner can clap really fast while singing “Miss Mary Mack.”
Touch your right hand to your left shoulder and your left hand to your right shoulder. Cross your arms during the opening line, “Miss Mary Mack.” Specifically, you perform this action while saying, “Miss.”
Your right hand should touch your right leg and your left hand should touch your left leg. Touch your thighs during the opening line, “Miss Mary Mack.” Specifically, you perform this action while saying the first syllable of Mary, “MAA-.”
You can clap your hands together in front of your chest, while the other person does the same. Clap your hands during the opening line, “Miss Mary Mack.” Specifically, you perform this action to the second syllable of Mary, “-RYY.”^{[5]
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Clap your right hand together with your partner’s left hand. Then, clap using both your own hands. Follow that by clapping your left hand together with your partner’s right hand. Clap again using both your own hands. Finally, clap hands with your partner so both your right hands meet and your left hands meet. Perform this action during the opening line, “Miss Mary Mack.” Specifically, you perform this action to the last line, “Mack. Mack. Mack” (said 3 times).^{[6]
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Repeat the sequence. Throughout the song, repeat the sequence above in the following order:^{[7]
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- Cross hands across chest.
- Pat your thighs.
- Clap your own hands together.
- Cross clap with your partner (right to left hands together).
- Clap your own hands together.
- Cross clap with your partner (left to right hands together).
- Clap your own hands.
- Clap both hands with your partner (right to right hands and left to left hands).^{[8]
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For example, you’d say, “Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack, All dressed in black black black, With silver buttons buttons buttons, All down her back back back."
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Alternate clapping variation 1 for Miss Mary Mack
- Keep one palm up and one palm down.
- Clap both partner's hands.
- Clap your own hands.
- Cross your arms across your chest.
- Slap your thighs.
- Clap your own hands.
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Alternate clapping variation 2 for Miss Mary Mack
- Slap your thighs.
- Clap your hands.
- Clap your partner’s right hand.
- Clap your hands.
- Clap your partner’s left hand.
- Clap your hands.
- Clap both partner’s hands.
- Clap your hands.
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Alternate clapping variation 3 for Miss Mary Mack
- Keep one palm up, one palm down.
- Clap both your partner’s hands.
- Reverse your hands.
- Clap both your partner’s hands.
- Clap your own hands.
- Clap your partner’s right hand.
- Clap your own hands.
- Clap your partner’s left hand.
- Clap your own hands.
- Clap your partner’s right hand.
- Clap your own hands.

Section 3 of 4:

Origin & Meaning of “Miss Mary Mack”

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“Miss Mary Mack” first appeared in an 1888 songbook for children. The song can be found in The Counting Out Rhymes of Children, while the lyrics are based on a historical figure known as Miss Mary Mack. Who is Miss Mary Mack? She performed with the elephants in the Ephraim Williams Circus in the 1880s. Her circus connection is why the song references elephants in the line, “To see the elephants.”^{[9]
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- Some believe the first 4 lines of “Miss Mary Mack” reference death as part of a riddle told by early 20th-century black laborers.^{[10]
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  Research source} The answer to the riddle illustrated in the first 4 lines is a “coffin.”^{[11]
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The Merrimack was an American warship named after the Merrimack River in the mid-19th century. It’s believed that the song mentions the ship being burned in the harbor during the Civil War.^{[12]
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Songs like Miss Mary Mack were early spiritual rhymes originally played by the children of American slaves in the South. Eventually, Miss Mary Mack became the most popular hand-clapping game worldwide and is played by children all over the English-speaking world.^{[13]
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Section 4 of 4:

Other Children’s Rhymes & Hand-Clapping Games

Miss Mary Mack is one of many classic children’s games. Other favorites that kids have enjoyed over the years include simple finger games like “Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple.” Some are multiplayer games like “Oranges and Lemons.” These and other hand-clapping games are listed below:
- Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple
- Patty Cake
- Ring Around the Rosie
- Oranges and Lemons
- It’s Raining, It’s Pouring