Why read nursery rhymes?

The following is an article I found that I thought was very interesting:
Omitting nursery rhymes from your child's library not only leaves a gap in the cultural literacy foundation, but also robs them of some delightfully frivolous fun.Most parents want their children to achieve in every way possible. But they may also wrongly expect everything the child does, sees, and hears to have an academic purpose. Even if they do see the value of rhymes for learning the patterns of language, Mother Goose may seem to them simply outdated poems that can be effectively replaced with Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, or Shel Sliverstein.

The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim is an academic explanation of the psychological value of fairy tales and nursery rhymes for a child's development. Bettelheim holds that these childhood stories have great value in teaching children that "a struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, is an intrinisc part of human existance--but that if one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious."Others have tried to dissect the historical backgrounds and hidden meanings of the nursery rhymes in an effort to give them a "value."But the reality is that although Mother Goose has value as poetry and may give children a structure by which to playact their deepest fears, and may also have interesting historical connections, many of them are simply nonsense. But children need time to play, laugh, and speak the nonsense of these rhymes. If childhood is totally devoid of nonsense, where is the wonder and joy of those years? The magic of the rhymes is their simple ability to please the child who hears and recites them. And to please a child is really reason enough to read Mother Goose rhymes.
http://www.squidoo.com/rhymesofmothergoose

I also found out that there is a Mother Goose Day. It is celebrated on May 1st and these are a few ideas on how you can celebrate:

• Get several editions of Mother Goose Rhymes and compare how different illustrators have depicted the same characters. Fine artists all have their own ways of illustrating the rhymes. This can be carried further by having a discussion of opinions on which illustrations best show the characters in the eyes of the particular reader.
• Have small groups act out skits of different rhymes (with only a few minutes to put together their acts). A variation on this is to give each group the rhyme to act out in pantomime, and have the other groups guess which rhyme is being acted.
• Another variation on acting out the rhymes is to play traditional Charades, with nursery rhymes as the focus.
• Search out the Mother Goose rhymes which are set to music and have a Mother Goose Songfest.
• Seek out Mother Goose Rhymes which have fingerplay actions, and teach them to the children.
• Have participants cook together to make a simple recipe associated with a Mother Goose rhyme. Ie. "Curds and Whey," associated with Little Miss Muffet is an old term for cottage cheese; "Pease Porridge" is thick pea soup. A surprisingly tasty snack is to put pea soup as a spread (directly from the can with no liquid added) on crackers.
• With the right age group, introduce the "rhythm and patter" of a nursery rhyme for writers to imitate in creating their own verses. Have a simple line-by-line recitation of rhymes, with participants taking turns giving the next line. Stay with the better-known rhymes so no one will be embarrassed.
• The most basic way to celebrate is to read aloud from an attractively-illustrated edition of Mother Goose rhymes.