Is “Ring Around The Rosie” Really About The Bubonic Plague?
Historical Images Archive/Alamy Stock PhotoAn illustration of children playing “Ring Around the Rosie.” 1880.
Most people know the “Ring Around the Rosie” nursery rhyme, and most people have heard that it has a dark meaning: It’s all about the Black Death, or bubonic plague, which tore through Europe in the 14th century.
But is that really true?
There are plenty of articles online that claim it is. These sources say that the rhyme, which reads in part: “Ring around the rosie / pocket full of posies / ashes, ashes / we all fall down!” includes clear references to the plague.
Public DomainA 14th-century depiction of people burying victims of the Black Death.
“Ring around the rosie” could allude to the rashes the sick suffered, whereas “pocket full of posies” could be a nod to the flowers laid on the dead to mask their foul smell, or a reference to preventative measures that people used to protect themselves from illness. And “ashes, ashes / we all fall down” could represent plague victims dying and then being cremated.
“The fatalism of the rhyme is brutal: the roses are a euphemism for deadly rashes, the posies a supposed preventative measure; the a-tishoos pertain to sneezing symptoms, and the implication of everyone falling down is, well, death,” the Londonist reported in 2014.
However, it’s never been accepted by folklore experts that “Ring Around the Rosie” is about the Black Death. After all, there are many versions of this nursery rhyme, some without the above references, and it wasn’t even documented until hundreds of years after the plague swept through Europe.
Rather, the origins of this rhyme are likely innocent. Snopes suggests that it was probably written simply as a fun song for kids.
