Ring-a-ring o' roses
Created | Updated Feb 10, 2002
Among the 'sweet' childhood memories people tend to have are those derived from nursery rhymes. One of the more well-known ones is:
Ring-a-ring o' roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo Atishoo
We all fall down.
At the moment, it's main interest for us is it's history. Because that is the only thing about it worth talking about. It's origins are believed to be from the Great Plague of 1665. The rings of roses describes the red patches on victims. The pocket bit was thought to be one of the cures. Atishoo was one of the symptoms of the disease. Falling = dying.
Another varient told to kids in America is when the third line is replaced with:
"Ashes, ashes".
This is because back then, the only way to safely dispose of a plague corpse was to burn it. Simple really.
It is possible that this is all lies dreamed up by historians who think they are right and want to provide a likely/logical answer to something. However, it's much more likely that the plague stuff is actually true.
Ring-a-ring o' roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo Atishoo
We all fall down.
At the moment, it's main interest for us is it's history. Because that is the only thing about it worth talking about. It's origins are believed to be from the Great Plague of 1665. The rings of roses describes the red patches on victims. The pocket bit was thought to be one of the cures. Atishoo was one of the symptoms of the disease. Falling = dying.
Another varient told to kids in America is when the third line is replaced with:
"Ashes, ashes".
This is because back then, the only way to safely dispose of a plague corpse was to burn it. Simple really.
It is possible that this is all lies dreamed up by historians who think they are right and want to provide a likely/logical answer to something. However, it's much more likely that the plague stuff is actually true.
