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The Story Behind Ring a Ring o Roses

Source: Wikipedia (Edited)



"Ring a Ring o' Roses" or "Ring Around the Rosie" is a nursery rhyme or folk song and playground singing game. It first appeared in print in 1881, but it is reported that a version was already being sung to the current tune in the 1790s and similar rhymes are known from across Europe

Common British versions include:

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!

We all fall down.

Common American versions include:

Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!

We all fall down.

The last two lines are sometimes varied to

Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush!

We've all tumbled down.

The rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England. Interpreters of the rhyme before the Second World War make no mention of this; by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom.

The rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and "all fall down" was exactly what happened

The line Ashes, Ashes in colonial versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims'.