Where did "Ring around the rosie" originate from?

Answer 1

I was trying to verify that the bubonic plague was the actual illness, and found this:

This is an interesting theory, but "If you consult the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes" (as Charles Poore noted in his New York Times review of 'The Plague and the Fire'), "you will find, in place of corroboration, the somewhat frosty notation that: 'The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern versions has given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the days of the Great Plague.'" Actually--surprising in a rhyme that has become the accompaniment to one of our most popular nursery games--"Ring-a-ring-a-roses" first appeared in print as late as 1881, in Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose.

Answer 2

I heard it originated from the black plague in Europe. The rings around the rosies are dark circles around your eyes from being sick and they carried pockets full of posies to cover up the smell of death and we all fall down is everyone dying. I am not sure if this is true but I am not joking about it and I heard it from my world history teacher in high school. Take for what it is worth.

Answer 3

Its a nursery rhyme based on the "black death" or the "great Plague" that spread rapidly by black rats throughout London in the 16th century and was eventually eradicated by the great fire of London.

Symptoms included red rings like shingles on the infected person, as well as repertory failings. Posies were though to relive the condition. The shortness of the song mirrors the very short onset period of the disease before resulting in death.

Answer 4

I have heard that it was a originally a teaching song about the plague. The "ring around the rosie" was a description of the sores/lesions. The "pocket full of posies" referred to carrying flowers to mask the odor of decomposing bodies. "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down" was supposed to have referred to the buring of bodies after they died and "fell down." I don't know if all that's true, but it's what I've heard.

Answer 5

It is a verse about the black death or plague. Ring a ring a rosy A pocket full of posies , (posies in your pocket or dark rings around your eyes) A tissue A tissue, ( sneezeing ) We all fall down. ( you fall down sick and Die..

Answer 6

ring a round a rosie, symptoms including red rings like shingles on the infected person, as well as repertory failingspocket full of posie, is that they would use posies to cover up the smell of death ,atchoo atchoo we all fall down, is about the bubonic plague and how once you got the cold you would soon die.

Answer 7

It refers to death and cremation in London during the great plague in medieval Europe

Answer 8

It is about the bubonic plague. Basically, once you got it you were going to die. Hence the ashes ashes we all fall down!

Answer 9

the plague in medieval Europe

Answer 10

The black plague