Europe Gets Wise

Across Europe, the continent that nurtured Christianity for most of two millennia, churches, convents, beguinages and chapels stand empty and increasingly derelict as faith and church attendance shriveled over the past half-century. Now, ever more of the once-sacred structures are repurposed for anything from clothes shops, to wall-climbing clubs and nightclubs.

Since you asked,

A beguinage, from the French term béguinage, is an architectural complex which was created to house beguines: lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world.

The song & dance have a different etymology.