Did you know that ‘bonfire’ comes from ‘bone fire’? The modern word evolved out of (and somehow transmogrified, as words usually do) the ritual Druids’ wicker men and other Pagan and Druidic human sacrifices. Remember that the next time Beltane comes around.
And what about that darling children’s rhyme…
Ring around the rosy,
Pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!
That came around during the times of the Bubonic, or Black Plague. The ‘ring around the rosy’ explained the common symptoms of someone with the disease.
‘Pocket full of posies’ told of the families who had lost their loved ones. It was common to stuff the pockets of the dead with posies and other available flowers, not only to make the carts they were in prettier, but also to cut down on the smell of rotting, diseased flesh.
‘Ashes, ashes’ is almost self-explanatory. Would you want hundreds of plague-ridden dead people, waiting to be buried, sitting out in the middle of the square? Probably not, unless you happen to be a necrophiliac… So, they burned the bodies to get rid of the stench, the disease, the death, and the sorrow.
So now that you know the dirty truth behind two common themes, you are that much more enlightened.
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