Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2343-2347 (17-21 December 2012) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Bluesummers:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 22 Dec 2012, 05:23 ---Then why'd they change it to ashes over here?
--- End quote ---
Another belief is that the "ashes" were symbolic of the Cold War/threat of nuclear annihilation, followed by the dying...but I'm not sure how the ring and the posies fit in with that line of thinking.
Carl-E:
Considering the "ashes" version goes back at least to the turn of the last century (my grandfather, born in 1898, learned it that way), no. Nothing to do with nuclear war. It's a corrupted sneeze.
Method of Madness:
It being a corrupted sneeze doesn't explain why it's ashes here and a sneeze in the UK. Shouldn't both be used in both places if it was that simple?
Akima:
--- Quote from: Mr_Rose on 22 Dec 2012, 04:41 ---Onomatopoeic sneezing. The rhyme originates with the advent of the Black Death and describes, loosely, some of the behaviours and superstitions surrounding it.
--- End quote ---
Isn't the Black Death name associated with the great pandemic of the 14th Century? I understood the rhyme was supposed to refer to the Great Plague of 1665, and that this explanation is probably bogus.
Corrupted sneeze: In England, and Australia too, the sneeze is "Atishoo" or "Atchoo" which blur easily enough into "Ashes", I think.
jwhouk:
And here I thought it had something to do with cricket.
</silly_mode>
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