Ring Around the Rosie

"Ring Around the Rosie" is a nursery rhyme or folk song and playground singing game. It first appeared in print in 1881, but it is reported that a version was already being sung to the current tune in the 1790s and similar rhymes are known from across Europe. Urban legend says the song originally described the plague.

Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.

The rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England.

A rosy rash was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. 

Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and "all fall down" was exactly what happened, death.

The line Ashes, Ashes in colonial versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims' houses, or blackening of their skin.

Nutty News Today – Nutty News Videos – Todays Nutty Joke – Nutty Facts – Nutty News Twitter  - Nutty Videos  Twitter