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"Ring Around the Rosey" or "Ring-a-Ring O'Roses" is a children's song and game that first appeared in print in 1881 but may have been recited as early as the 1790s.
The most common variation of the song in the USA:
- Ring around the rosey
- Pocket full of posey
- Ashes, ashes,
- We all fall down.
In the UK, it is usually sung thus:
- Ring a ring o'roses
- A pocketful of posies
- ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo (imititaive of sneezing)
- We all fall down.
Children stand in a circle holding hands and skipping in one direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, as they sing the song. At the end of the last line, the group falls down into a heap.
Often a 14th century origin is claimed for the song, but this is possible only if it were recited for centuries without being written down (as it first appeared in print in the late 19th century). A common, though probably apocryphal, explanation of the verse is that it references the Black Death which decimated the European population during the 14th century. It is doubtful that the song originated during the plague, and its connection to the disease is tenuous, though commonly accepted. The first time it was suggested to be plague related seems to be in 1961, James Leasor's book The Plague and the Fire. Its origin seems in actuality to be as a dancing game that children may have played to get around the Protestant dancing bans of the 19th century.
In the "plague" interpretation, the first line refers to the round red rash that would break out on the skin of plague victims. The second line's "pocket full of posey" would have been a pocket in the garment of a victim filled with something fragrant, such as flowers that aimed to conceal the smell from the sores. A second possible explanation for this line is that it referred to the scientific thought of the time that fresh-smelling flowers would purify the air around them. Bodies of victims were burned upon death, hence the last line: "ashes, ashes, we all fall down". Several alternate endings to the song exist, one being: "achoo, achoo, we all fall down." It is unclear whether this ending, with its obvious reference to sickness, is original or modified from the "ashes".
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