Ring around the Rosie is a nursery rhyme we all heard. And if you somehow didn’t it goes as follows, “Ring around the Rosie pocket full of posies ashes, ashes we all fall down” But there’s actually very dark meaning behind every line in the tale. This centers around the great plague of London: An epidemic that killed 75,000 people in only a year, a quarter of London’s population.

It was the last epidemic of the bubonic plague, it was transmitted by Yersinia Pestis bacterium, which is usually transmitted through the bite of a human flea or louse. Victims noted experiencing strong unbearable headaches, vomiting, and a fever. Those who caught it had a 30% chance of surviving the plague with the proper treatment.

“The Rosie” is the red rash that covered plague victims from head to toe and is described as feeling like fire to the victim’s skin. Furthermore, “a pocket full of posies” refers to people carrying posies to prevent breathing in the smell (and germs) of the afflicted. They thought it would protect them from whatever was causing the disease, and it happened to do the opposite and make them more susceptible. But this wasn’t discovered until years later. it’s thought that the majority of people who died from the plague had a weak immune system due to breathing in the posies.

Ashes and ashes is a pretty simple explanation: when people died from the disease their bodies were burnt to “kill the disease once and for all”. People didn’t want to risk their bodies further spreading the disease so just to be safe they turned them into ashes, most victims’ bodies were never even returned to their families.

It’s horrifying to think about the fact that children chant this phrase over and over again, without even knowing the horrible meaning behind it.