What's up with "Ring Around the Rosie"?

Question

I heard that the kids song (that everyone knows) has a freakish story behind it but we have all sang it and didn't know.

Answer 1

It does, actually. "Ring around the rosie" referred to spots that would rise on the skin if one had the disease; "pocket full of posey" either refers to people carrying around flowers in their pockets to disguise the stench or as some sort of an "antidote"; "ashes, ashes, we all fall down" refers to the fact that they would burn the corpses of people who died from the plauge, to prevent it from spreading. How morbid!

Answer 2

Per snopes.com it's a myth

From their website:
So, what does "Ring Around the Rosie" mean, then? Folklorist Philip Hiscock suggests:

The more likely explanation is to be found in the religious ban on dancing among many Protestants in the nineteenth century, in Britain as well as here in North America. Adolescents found a way around the dancing ban with what was called in the United States the "play-party." Play-parties consisted of ring games which differed from square dances only in their name and their lack of musical accompaniment. They were hugely popular, and younger children got into the act, too. Some modern nursery games, particularly those which involve rings of children, derive from these play-party games. "Little Sally Saucer" (or "Sally Waters") is one of them, and "Ring Around the Rosie" seems to be another. The rings referred to in the rhymes are literally the rings formed by the playing children. "Ashes, ashes" probably comes from something like "Husha, husha" (another common variant) which refers to stopping the ring and falling silent. And the falling down refers to the jumble of bodies in that ring when they let go of each other and throw themselves into the circle.

Answer 3

The origin of the song has to do with the Bubonic Plague which was a serious outbreak. "Ring around the rosie" has to do with one of the symptoms I believe =D

Answer 4

I think it was a kid's song during the Black Plague. I could look it up, but I'll leave that to someone else.

Answer 5

I watched a special on it once. I don't remember all the details but the song refers to one of the plagues. Its pretty freaking morbid

Answer 6

yep, Bubonic Plague

ring round the rosie - a rash
pocket full of posie - people carried flowers in their front pockets because the smell on the street of sick and dieing people was so bad
ashes, ashes, we all fall down- cremation

Answer 7

The previous two answers are correct. Its actually kind of a gross song, in context.

Answer 8

it was actually made a long time ago during the black plague. it was about people dieing

Answer 9

its for kids common lol