The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ..... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence..
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus,someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.
And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !
So . . . get out there and educate someone!
Share these facts with a friend
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My Comment
History certainly is not boring when you put it that way. Some noted inaccuracies are:
1. Bathing during the 1500s were not common. As a matter of fact, there was a "no bathing rule", with exception to baptism. They saw bathing as unnecessary. Their idea of bathing as next to godliness was far from their mind.
2. The brides traditionally carried a bouquet made of white flowers, which had a symbolic meaning: stephanotis symbolised good-luck; pimpernel, change; white flowers, innocence; forget-me-nots, true love; ivy, friendship, fidelity, and matrimony; and orange blossoms, beauty, personality, and fertility.
3. The saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!" is a german proverb recorded for the first time in 1512 " das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten" recorded by Thomas Murner in his satire "Narrenbeschworung" (Appeal to Fools).
4. The phrase "It's raining cats and dogs." first appeared in Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (1708).
5. Canopy beds date as far back to medieval times and were popular among the wealthy. It was design in such a way for privacy
6. The phrase"Dirt poor." first appeared in Edna Ferber's novel "American Beauty" (1931).
7. To "bring home the bacon" has two possible origins, both not close to this one in the email. One from the greased pig contest in America and the other in England, where a couple is offered a whole side of bacon during a what is called the Dunmow flitch trial.
8. The vessel most commonly used to drink bear was the horn cup, made from two pieces of cow or bullock horn. They were light but strong. However, lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. Plumbism is highly likely with such a combination (Annex, p. 181). Needless to say, the custom of holding a wake or vigil origins out of the need to pray for the soul of the deceased.
9. In the old England the use of a coffin can not be ascertained, but there are records that state its use far back as the 1500s. It increase use occurred during the introduction of Christianity. Its use was mainly to conceal the dead (Gittings, p. 157). However, during 1500s, the less than wealthy were generally shrouded in a sheet from head to foot and buried. Gittings cited: "...the book of Common Prayers speaks of earth being scattered over the body" and that some parishes had a communal coffin in which the poor would be carried in to the burial area. The terms cited have little to do with burial during the Elizabethan period.
10. This brings us to the idea of the term: the "graveyard shift". This term is American in origin and refers to late-night work shift that could be one that is lonely, and dates to the turn of the 20th century. As for the terms: "saved by the bell" and "dead ringer" are both boxing slangs. The word "ringer" also has been used in horse-racing to mean a substitute horse. "Dead ringer" means an exact substitute.
Reference:
Jupp, P. & Gittings, C. (1999). Death in England: an illustrated history. Manchester University Press : UK.
Wilton, D (2004). Word myths: debunking linguistic urban legends. Oxford University Press: New York
Todd, R.W (2006). Much ado about English: up and down the bizarre byways of a fascinating language. Nicholas Brealey Publishing: London.
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