mary mary quite contrary - is about a crazy woman who killed her neighbors and buried them in the garden?

Question

any other info on fairy tales or distorted childrens rhymes we feed our children

Answer 1

Hey you have no idea.....we are corrupting the minds of our little ones and don't even know it. Actually each one has a meaning usually based on history. For example Goosey Goosey Gander is all about religious intolerance.

Goosey Goosey Gander where shall I wander,
Upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.

Apparently this was said to "scare" you into saying the appropriate prayers by whoever was "the law" and in charge.

I have found an exceptional site that I found quite an interesting read about many nursery rhymes and their "hidden" meaning. Check it out some are surely gruesome and others just amazing!

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/index.htm

Answer 2

I have a book that has the original Grimm Fairy tales...they are a trip. Such as Cinderella's sisters actually cut their feet to fit in the shoes, unlike in the movie we have now. And little Red Riding Hood and Grandma were actually eaten and when the wolf fell asleep, the hunter came along and cut open the wolf, took out red and granny, stuffed him with rocks, and sewed him back up.

Most of these stories were told to teach children life lessons...similar to urban legends in the US.

Answer 3

Beneath the surface of this simple garden plot is a rhyme overgrown with religious symbolism. One interpretation claims it describes the Church of the Virgin Mary — the pretty maids are nuns lined up in pews. A more racy interpretation says our contrary miss is Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic monarch whose loose lifestyle angered her straight-laced Protestant ministers. The pretty maids are ladies-in-waiting. And the cockle-shells? Would you believe decorations on a party dress given to her by a secret lover? People loved to dig up dirt on Mary.

Answer 4

I have read some fairy tales that have not been modified (as they so often are today) and some had gruesome endings. I heard that they were tales used to "teach" kids to behave by scaring them into thinking if they do something they shouldn't, that something awful will happen to them.

Answer 5

Actually it's about Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Bloody Mary.

Also, Ring Around the Rosy is about smallpox, or some other disease. The original version said achoo instead of ashes and "we all fall down" means we all die from it.

Answer 6

mary mary quite contrary how does your garden grow? With sea shells and cockle bells (flowers) and little maids in a row(flowers).Nothing about killing anyone.Analize "little Jack Horner" or "Humpty Dumpty" or maybe"Little Miss Muffett". We can all read into things in a different way................Karenr

Answer 7

one that terrified me as a child was "rock-a-bye baby". Who in their right mind thinks that's a relaxing song for a kid to go to sleep to??