Ring Around the Rosie
"Ring Around the Rosie" is one of the most beloved English language nursery rhymes that exists. We can all recall reciting it, and falling down playfully at the end, giggling and smiling the whole time. The popularity of the rhyme has given rise to many theories about its meaning and origins, one of which I must confess to believing myself until a few short weeks ago.
At my niece's first birthday party, as the children were being led in "Ring Around the Rosie," I turned to my husband, who grew up in a non-English speaking country, and said "this rhyme is about the Bubonic Plague." I said it matter-of-factly. because I KNEW that it was true. Where or when I had found it out, I don't know, but I believed it to be common knowledge that was fit to be passed along. Later on, I decided to find out more. I shocked to find out that I was wrong. Apparently, so are most of the people who have written about the rhyme on the internet.
The people who believe the rhyme echoes the plague interpret the rhyme generally as follows:
"Ring around the rosie"
A plague buboe appears on someone's cheek
"A pocket full of posies"
A popular way of fending off the plague
"Atischoo, atischoo"
Sneezing
or "Ashes, ashes"
Cremation of the plague victims
"We all fall down"
We all die.
There are many variations on this theme, but the basic message is the same: Sickness, symptoms, and death. What a wonderful uplifting message for our children to reenact!
In all actuality, the first record of "Ring Around the Rosie" in print is from 1881 and this was far too long after the Black Death of the 14th century that it is supposedly describing to form a credible connection. Historians and folklorists agree there there is no way that it could survive that long and be related to the plague. Also, researchers have been collecting information about similar games for 300 years and the earliest possible mention of anything similar to "Ring around the Rosie" was in 1790. Unless it was an underground secret for several hundred years, it was not handed down through the generations from the time of the plague until the present.
Several other interpretations exist, including the notion that it was invented as a way around protestant bans on dancing. The fact of the matter is that many nursery rhymes make no sense whatsoever, and that is perhaps why we and our children love them so much. "Ring Around the Rosie" is most likely not about the Plague, but I doubt it is about much of anything else either. In the course of my research I also found out the shocking news that Humpty Dumpty was most likely not ever even an egg, but a piece of military equipment!
My advice after this exercise: Never try to figure out what those cute rhyming lines mean. What you don't know (at least where nursery rhymes are concerned) can't hurt you. So laugh, play, sing, and leave your rational mind behind!