Ring around the Rosie is a children's song sung with smiling, laughing and hand-holding, but did you know it actually has very morbid roots? It actually relates to the Black Death. Now you wouldn't think that a children's song that everybody knows and loves would have to do with such a harsh topic. I guess that may explain why you always hear the children in scary movies singing this song. Nobody ever would have guessed that this song came from the roots of a disease that killed so many people it was thought to have end the world. So what do the lyrics mean? Well the meaning is almost as simple as the song and makes sense if you think twice about the song. The lyrics of the song are based ONLY off of the Black Death. Ring around the rosie is a reference to the black sores that would appear on your body as part of the plague. Your "rosie" is around the center of the back of your hand. A pocket full of posies is a reference to people would carrying posies (flowers) around to not smell the sickening scent of dead bodies everywhere. Ashes Ashes signifies the ashes from all the bodies being burned on pyres. Bodies couldn't be buried or else the infection would spread. We all fall down signifies death. The meaning wasn't later realized until a while after the Black Death had occurred. It still shocks many people to know that such an innocent song we used to sing when we were little has such a horrifying and disturbing meaning. Now when you hear this song will you think of it the same way you did before
That is one sick and twisted song. There was no way I would have known that the Black Death was related to ring around the rosie. Nice post, maybe a little more detail.
ReplyDeleteactually it's called the black plague
ReplyDeleteIt has many names shut up
DeleteUm, the Black Death has lots of different names like the Black Death, the Black Plague and the Bubonic Plague. So, yeah, keep your mouth shut until you get your facts straight.
Deleteactual its called the bubonic plague. But it has been given nicknames throughout the years because of its devestation
ReplyDeleteactually, the bubonic plague is only one of the versions of the plague. There is the bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and the septicemic plague.the It is actually called either the Black Death or the Black Plague or simply The Plague.
Deletealso "The Great Dying" by the actual people living during that era.
DeleteI'm not so sure that one of it's names is called "The Great Dying", but it did have many. For example:
Delete"Black Death", "The Pestilence Plague", the medieval people called it "the blue sickness", "La pest" meaning the pestilence and "The Great Mortality."
swagggggg
ReplyDelete"The Black Death" was in fact a combination of three different plagues in the 14th Century - Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicaemic.
ReplyDeleteIronically enough, despite being awfully close to the symptoms of the Black Death this children's song didn't exist for a couple of centuries after it occurred.
Good article... but that's just an urban legend. Even though it's technically possible, most historians don't think it's true. Check out http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp (Don't worry, it's not a bad link. :)
ReplyDeleteHow can it be a urban lengend?
DeleteIm doing a power point on The Black Death.. Is this a good page to use?
ReplyDeleteHey you realise people now say "bless you bless you" instead of "ashes ashes" now for like sneezing but that relates too because their sickness
ReplyDeleteThis theory is discounted by folklorists. See Wiki article on the subjec.t
ReplyDeletewiki is not a accurate site that you should trust...
DeleteExactly! Anyone can go onto wiki and change it!
DeleteGreat article.I don't mind the Nursery Rhymes....they're easily explainable and fun for the kids especially if they have a dance to go with them like "Ring around the Rosie".
ReplyDelete