Nursery rhymes are songs usually for children’s bedtime or
playtime. Some rhymes may be catchy and some does not make sense at all, but a
lot of them have many hidden messages.
Old nursery rhymes are traced back to the
times when criticizing the government; rumors and gossip about events are
highly forbidden and can be punishable by death. Hence, the rhymes were created
by the people to express themselves and hide the message at the same time.
Below
is the list of some of the real creepy meanings of nursery rhymes.
• Ring Around The Rosie – Ring around the
rosy, A pocketful of posies, "Ashes, Ashes", we all fall down!
This rhyme dates back 500 years during the
great plague in Europe. It is basically a reference of the symptoms of the
bubonic plague which are red ring-shaped rashes, and the “ashes, ashes” part is
about the cremation of the plague victims’ bodies.
• Ladybird Ladybird – Ladybird ladybird
fly away home, your house is on fire and your children are gone, all except one
called Anne, for she has crept under the frying pan.
It’s definitely got nothing to do with the
colorful ladybug. Ladybird is a reference to Catholics during the sixteenth
century Protestant England. Catholics were forbidden to practice their
religion, forcing them to attend mass in secret or in outbuildings. The
catholic priests were even burned at the stake for it.
• Jack and Jill – Jack and Jill went up
the hill, to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down, And broke his crown; And
Jill came tumbling after.
This is not a song about kids helping house
chores by fetching water. It is believed that the character Jack is King Louis
XVI and Jill is Queen Marie Antoinette. Jack lost his crown, as King Louis was
beheaded, then Queen Marie Antoinette (Jill) came tumbling after in 1793 during
the Reign of Terror.
• Baa Baa Blacksheep – Baa baa black
sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! One for the
master, one for the dame and one for the little boy who lives down the lane...
It’s a nursery rhyme not about a sheep, but
about taxes. During the reign of King Edward I, he charged the sheep farmers a
third of a wool sack’s price, a third goes to the church and the last goes to
the farmer.
• Rub A Dub Dub – Rub a dub dub, Three
maids in a tub, and how do you think they got there? The butcher, the baker and
the candlestick-maker, and all of them gone to the fair.
It is not about the maids washing clothes
or cleaning themselves. This song refers to the popular form of entertainment
back in the 14th century, which is the peep show. Men of that century like to
take a glimpse of girls in the adult show.