Ashes II

2008.03.05

The dead are covered

And then mourned

Yesterdays post as well as the two photos above were a Graduate Dance performance based on the children's rhyme;

"Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"

(The following was plagiarized from http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm)

A cute lil nursery rhyme has it's origin in English history . The historical period dates back to the Great Plague of London...The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin (Ring around the rosy). Pockets and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs ( or posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease was transmitted by bad smells. The term "Ashes Ashes" refers to the cremation of the dead bodies! The death rate was over 60% and the plague was only halted by the Great Fire of London in 1666 which killed the rats which carried the disease which was transmitting via water sources.