Ring Around the Rosies Isn't about the death of 75M people
Ring Around The Rosies Isn’t About The Death Of 75 Million People
Hans Thoma: Kinderreigen_(1872) — Public domainFor the longest time I heard a story. I heard the story repeatedly, sometimes even from reputable sources (The History Channel). The story was fantastic, it revolved around a children’s song most have heard at some point in their life — Ring Around The Rosies (English version: Ring A Ring O’ Rosies.The story told how this children’s song was a cryptic reference to the Black Death. This was an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in 1347 to 1351 which killed approximately 75 million people in Europe. This was roughly 1/3 the population of the continent. There was also a resurgence of the disease in England in the 1600s.Just to give you an idea of the devastation, imagine this event in today’s world. Currently, the United States has a population of 329 Million people. If an event like this occurred today, that would mean almost 110 Million people dying in a matter of a few years. An event of that type would be unimaginable.So connecting this innocent children’s song to this cataclysmic event is kind of startling to say the least. When I heard this connection, it stuck in my brain and I never forgot it. Everything as it was explained to me made total sense. It was utterly logical.Ring around the rosyPocket full of posiesAshes, ashesWe all fall down