Episode 37: Death and Nursery Rhymes

In this intriguing episode of "A Tisket Tasket" podcast, host Gina takes us on a journey through time and history, exploring the unexpected connections between nursery rhymes, Halloween, and child mortality. Discover the eerie origins of Halloween, from ancient Celtic traditions to its transformation into the festive holiday we know today, all while unraveling the haunting themes hidden within nursery rhymes. Gina delves into the chilling reality of child mortality rates in the past, shedding light on why these morbid topics found their way into our beloved childhood rhymes. Join Gina as she uncovers the fascinating interplay between folklore, history, and the enduring resonance of nursery rhymes. Like what you hear? Consider supporting the podcast at atiskettasketpodcast.com. #NurseryRhymes #HalloweenHistory #ChildMortality #PodcastEpisode #Folklore #HistoryUnveiled

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to A Tisket Tasket podcast. I'm your host, Gina. And today we will be talking about episode number 37. In which I'll be talking about death and nursery rhymes. Warning. This episode talks about some heavy topics such as death dying and child mortality. So if this is a topic that may be too much for you, please go ahead and skip it. First thing's first, I'm leaving for Portland, Oregon in a month, which is just absolutely astounding to me. And I could still use your help getting out there. Please check out my website, link in the description below to see how you can help me get out there and to speak at the American folklore conference. 

I'm so excited to talk about it. I've been working on my presentation a lot and I'm just really excited. But today we are not actually talking about a nursery arrived because I found myself having so many thoughts. Before. I started to record my October nursery rhymes. I really wanted to sit down and think about what I wanted to do. I wanted to talk about. Why nursery rhymes may talk about more morbid of subjects than we expect. And why there aren't that many nursery rhymes that specifically talk about Halloween. But when I set out to look at Halloween theme, nursery rhymes, I was unsure what I was going to uncover. As you all have followed me this year, you have no doubt. Notice that most of the nursery rhymes I have covered. Or before the 20th century. And quite a few of them predate even the 18th and 19th centuries. I wanted to do a spooky or Halloween themed month as Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, but I knew I would run into some cultural barricades. How we, as we celebrate it in the United States, today is a relatively new concept. It was not until the 1950s. Did Halloween become a booming cultural holiday in this country? The holiday itself is ancient hearkening back to the ancient Celtic tradition of Saul. When. Festival celebrating the changing of the seasons and celebrating when light became dark. 

It was believed that the veil between life and death was fitness during this time and cultural practices we enjoy and harmless fun today. We're used to ward off evil spirits. Early Christians oppose the Celtic religious beliefs and did its best to assimilate the holiday into more  christian friendly practices. 

Pope Gregory the third. And  he was poked between 7 31 in 7, 4, 1 8. D was credited with bringing all saints day. November 1st is the Christian calendar followed by all souls day, November 2nd, to remember the departed. All saints day became all hollows day in the previous day, which is October 31st became all Hallows Eve or Halloween. These holidays are not to be confused with Mexico's. DIA de Los Muertos, which dates back to the ancient Aztecs. And this was an entire month of celebrating the dead in the departed. It likely became more aligned with the Catholic holidays when the Spanish conquered Mexico. And I really wish I had more time to talk about this amazing holiday, the colorful and celebrate Tory ways that south America celebrates this holiday is in my opinion, an absolutely beautiful and breathtaking tribute to those who have passed. However talking. Again about how we. Halloween came to the United States with its Irish settlers, where folks adapted traditions, such as carving turnips into lanterns with a more north American flair, thus giving us the jack-o-lantern or carving gourds or pumpkin's. In 1820 Washington, Irving published the legend of sleepy hollow, which was one of the first, all American ghost stories centered around Halloween. In the mid 20th century candy corporations spun the holiday as more candy centered. 

In the 1960s and 1970s. Brought with it. A collection of classic horror movies, such as the night of the living dead 1968. And John carpenter's Halloween 1978. Since then Halloween has become even more popular and brings with it and astounding economic growth. According to the United States census bureau in 20 20, 60 0.6 million us households gave out candy. According to the national retail foundation. 68% of households gave out candy. 

. 53% of Americans decorated their yard. 50% dressed in costume in 2022. American spent a record of 10.6 billion. Dollars on Halloween last year. And the foundation expects that number to exceed $12 billion this year 12. Billion dollars spent on Halloween. 

Now, before we get into the second topic of today's podcast, which is about. The prevalence of childhood death, which is a very depressing topic in itself. I did want to include some fun audio because that's been my thing this last year is including. Older recordings. So today I'm going to play you the song Halloween. Bye guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians bill Flanagan in the Lombardo trio. In Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane. And this is from 1950s Decca records. For those of you who know me personally, I think the The name guy Lombardo made me laugh for those of you who know my husband. But this song is called Halloween and it is a fun uplifting song about the holiday. And it just goes to show you that this is right around the time. And the United States that this holiday became. Started to become very popular culturally. And for those of you who have watched the show. Mystery science theater, 3000, or as now it's known as riff tracks. There are some hilarious Halloween. Themed shorts. That the guy's riff about from around the same era so if you really want some quote unquote vintage fun go ahead and google halloween riff tracks and that will also make you laugh but here let's go ahead and listen to the 1950s Decca record halloween

 Halloween

Music

Halloween, hot jack o lantern, it's Halloween Apples hanging high, there's a big pumpkin pie in the sky. Children sing, children waltz. Who gives a darn if your face is false? Jump on your broom like a witch. Go and toss all your gloom in the ditch. Go out on the street for a trick or a treat. You're a cinch, so strike it rich.

Halloween, Halloween. All other holidays fall between. The night of all hallows, so light up the tallow and make it a bright Halloween.

Ramblin Wreck from Georgia Tech

Halloween music Halloween,

Halloween, start ringing doorbells, it's Halloween While you build a fire, Someone lets the air out of your tire. Owls and bats, Howls from cats, May scare the buttons right off your spats. Don't be afraid of a ghost, For the ghost may be merely your host. Go out on the street for a trick or a treat. It's the same from coast to coast.

Halloween, Halloween. All other holidays fall between. So saddle your sorrow till after tomorrow and make it a bright Halloween.



 Now, what does all of this have to do with nursery arrives? Well, I haven't found. Any singular nursery rhyme that deals with Halloween. However, a surprising number of rhymes do talk about death or dying or the preservation  of a body. I have speculated in the past on why this may be, especially when I talked about the death of cock Robin a few weeks ago. My theory is that death was such a prevalent part of everyday culture that it only made sense that it would be incorporated into nursery arrives. Looking at mortality statistics from the human morality database, H M D the world's leading scientific data resource on mortality in developed countries. Scientists can track a child mortality rates all the way back to around the mid 18th century, which I  I find kind of interesting because a lot of the nursery rhymes that we do talk about are from around that time. In the Sweden, for example, between 1750 in 17, 80, 40% of children died before the age of 1540. In Bavaria, which is now known as Germany, as well as France around the same time, the statistic goes up to 45%. So almost half. Of the world's children died before the age. 15. And this is around the mid to late 18th century. The H M D report says that on average, a couple would have between five and seven children. Which means that most parents saw at least one of their children die. If you are interested in learning more about mortality rates from periods, even earlier than this, check out my reference section. I have. Lincoln in the reference section and there are some very interesting graphs and interesting. Anthropology studies that I link to. 

In any case to quote authors, Roser Richie it data nights in their 2019 article. No matter where in the world a child was born, about half of them died. The numbers are still scary today. It's estimated that 14,000 children between the ages of zero and four years. Die daily. 14,000. The authors continue their articles speculating on why these mortality numbers are so high. They share some of the same hypotheses that I have, including the common practice of bloodletting. Being seen as a viable medical practice, as well as child labor. As well as medic.  The lack of medical care and environmental issues among a number of other theories. But the sad fact remains that child mortality rate is still higher than  many may believe even as recently as 1950. No, this is the decade where my parents were born. One out of four children died before puberty. But don't let all of these statistics scare you. The global rate has declined. Child mortality rate is at an all time low at just 4%. Was she author's call the progress against child morality is for me. One of the greatest achievements in humanity. 

I have not even scratched the surface with this topic. I haven't covered mortality rates in conjunction with the industrial revolution and child labor, for example, however, the overall point I want to make with this. Is that while we may have a luxury of seeing most, if not all of our children grew up to maturity. This hasn't always been, even in the last century. Is it any wonder then that death and dying was a topic in a child's rhyme. 

So this week, I just wanted to share with you some facts about the history of Halloween and why it's spooky season now, as well as some facts and figures behind mortality. And combining the two, I really wanted to do a theme month because again, Halloween is my favorite holiday. And I really respect. The celebration of those who came before us. And so in the month of October, I'd like to take a look at nursery rhymes. Children in children's songs that talk about some of these more gruesome topics. I haven't quite picked out which ones I'm going to talk about yet, but stay tuned because I think it's going to be the most interesting month I've covered yet. 

But as always stay tuned where I continue to talk  📍 and research. And look at the weirdness of nursery rhymes.