the 1500's

[WalkerInTheWoods]

quote:they took their yearly bath in May

quote: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 really
mess up your nice clean bed.

You expect me to believe that people that only took baths once a year really cared about clean beds??

[Fuzziwig]

ROFLMAO [][][][]
Absolutely brilliant [8D]

[Gandalf]

Now see... this is why I'm a classical historian!

Everybody washed!
Not like that nasty inbetween period called the medieval world!

Barbarians!!!

Douglas

[LA FORET MAUVE]

HAha ! That made me thinking the day when i learned in class that they were a special ceremony for the kings of France when they took their FIRST bath...at the age of 4 years old !!! It may sound unbelievable, but hey.

[jc84corvette]

Wow people back then were dirty in my opinion LOL!

[Nick]

Someone sent me that bit about the 1500's. One of the things that struck me was how, 500 years later, we still use those expressions. Also, how many people ever knew where those sayings came from, I know I never gave it a thought before. Makes you wonder how sayings like that stick around for so long. []


Very best,

[Gandalf]

Yes, with regards to my favourite era, the classical era (where everybody washed!), there are many expressions in use today, with many roman proverbs for example which people use without realising they are roman!

Also other phrases and practices; The old habit of saying 'bless you' after sneezing is very old and dates to the pre-christian era.
Pliny the elder mentions in one of his letters how the emperor Tiberius (reigned 14-37AD) sneezed in his chariot once and said 'bless you'. Pliny's reson for mentioning this was he was curius as to where all these quaint expressions came from... and that was back in the 1st century AD!

He also wonders about the practice of wishing everyone a 'happy new year' with the customery gift of presents during the new year festival of Saturnia (which was later christianised into 'christmas').

Pliny should take a visit to Scotland where New Year is celebrated with great vigour even now!

Douglas

[Nick]

Here's something to think about:

Subject: The 1500's

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 still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were
starting to smell so 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
househad 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 nowood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the
dogs, 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 really
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 the floor to help keep
their footing.

As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you
opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was
placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

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 the 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 and 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
"upper crust"

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
sometimes knock them 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 thought 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 that History was boring !

[]