Sue wrote:
See this link for more info: http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm
Without much effort I found the following UK web sites which say that the
rhyme is to do with the plague:
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/1479.html
Et al.
Myself, I find the snopes one more convincing for all the reasons Avital mentioned but also because, in Poland, we have (well, *used to*, in my childhood, 50 yrs ago <g>) a very similiar children's "ring game" (though we stooped, not fell at the end of it), with a very similiar song that goes with it. But, Poland was one of the very few European countries which did not suffer from the Black Plague. Or so my son was informed at Princeton (while taking a history course on witchcraft persecutions and the origins) -- I didn't know about it :) Apparently, the then king just closed the borders -- nobody in, nobody out -- and managed to contain it
"Remember, Remember the 5th of November....." the gunpowder plot 1605, etc
Serendipity. :) That's the one which had been buzzing around my head... Because, as usual (happens "with monotonous regularity" as we used to say in Poland), I got my dates all wrong *again* recently...
I'm OK with 10.13 -- I know there are only 12 months, so the second date *has* to be the day. But, 9.8? It's my wedding date and the only way I can "decipher" the date engraved on my wedding ring is by remembering I was married in September, not in August.
I grew up with a *logical* progression in dating -- from the smallest unit to the biggest (day, month, year). In fact, to make certain-sure that no mistake was possible, we used Roman numerals for the month (thus, my wedding occured on 8.IX.'73). The US convention of putting the month first, then the day, then the year, seems to have no rhyme or reason and trips me up every time.
The only "excuse" for dating "the other way' round" seems to be derived from the phrase "September 8th" (and I have no idea what *its* origin might be), although the "8th of September" is equally viable (see the "remember, remember, the 5th of November..."
So, what I'd like to know is: *when* did the switch happen and *how* (and, if possible, *why* <g>)
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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