Mom was playing/singing "Ring around the Rosie" with Maleah last night and mentioned that the true origin of the song was actually pretty sickening. To paraphrase what she said and other info I've found online:
The song is about the black plague and originated in 1347
Ring around the Rosie is reference to a round red rash from the disease.
A "pocket full of posies" referred to the flowers surrounding the infected to help protect them.
"Ashes, ashes" refers to the sound of a sneeze made by the sick.
"We all fall down" morbidly refers to those that have succumbed to the disease.
I immediately wanted to erase this song from both my and Maleah's brain. However, if you know me... you know I checked it out. It could not be further from the truth. The song was first published in 1881 in a Children's Nursery Rhymes book. For more information that debunks this odd story, go to http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp.
This is yet another example of why I hate email forwards. Yes, I did hear it directly from someone, but Snopes described this as an email forward that had been circulating for awhile. Recently a guest Pastor gave an amazing illustration of a "true" story about 9/11. It was completely false.
The moral of the blog post... Check it out. If it sounds too crazy to be true it almost always is. Call me skeptical or cynical, but don't call me uninformed.
To check things out go to:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/ (my personal favorite)
http://www.snopes.com/
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