Eden, Scott, Nenon and Nancy.

"You put your left foot in,
You put your left foot out,
You do the Hokey Cockey
And you shake it all about..."

Hmm...... well, back in 17th century Puritan England anything 'popish' or Roman Catholic was viewed with great suspicion and open to, at best, ridicule. The Hokey-Cokey, with its song and actions, is a mimicry of the Roman Catholic Mass. 

In those days the priest faced the altar (not the people) and performed several actions as he consecrated the bread and wine at Holy Communion. The words of the service were in Latin. "You put your left arm in" etc was ridiculing the priest as he lifted his arms heavenward during the rite. "You do the Hokey- Cokey and you turn around" was when the priest turned to face the congregation with the host (consecrated bread) to offer it to them. 

"Ooooh, the Hokey-Cokey": hokey-cokey is a corruption of the Latin words of consecration "Hoc est corpus: This is my body". (Note: many of the strange words and phrases of our language are corruptions of other languages introduced over the years when few were educated enough to speak or understand Latin). "Knees bend, arm stretch, ra-ra-ra": knees bend is a ridicule of the genuflection (a kind of religious curtsey to the altar) of the priest; "arm stretch" is when he holds up his hands at the point of consecration in the service; and "ra-ra-ra" is just a mimicry of the Latin words and prayers they didn't understand.

These people are Puritans?

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