Strange Facts About the 1500s
 

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:

1. 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.

2. 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."

3. 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 dogs, cats, and other small animals (mice rats, and 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."

4. 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.

5. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor."

6. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter, when wet, so, they spread thresh 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 entry way --hence, a "thresh hold."

7. 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."

8. 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."

9. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

10. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a 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.

11. Most people did not have pewter plates, but, had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often, trenchers were made from stale paysan bread, which was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed, and, a lot of times, worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."

12. 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."

13. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. 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."

14. England is old and small, and, they started out 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, one 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."

50 words or less please... its late

Wow, that was the most useful thing I ever got from GFY.

now that's truly sad.

:moon

:1orglaugh

It's all bullshit and completly historically inaccurate.


In the agricultural communities of medieval England, the most popular months for weddings were January, November and October, when harvest was past and the time for planting had not yet arrived. Late autumn and winter were also when animals were usually slaughtered for food, so freshly butchered beef, pork, mutton and similar meats would be available for the wedding feast, which often coincided with annual festivals.

Summer weddings, which might also coincide with annual festivals, enjoyed some popularity, as well. June was indeed a good time to take advantage of good weather and the arrival of new crops for a wedding festival, as well as fresh flowers for the ceremony and celebrations. The use of flowers in wedding ceremonies goes back to ancient times.

Depending on the culture, flowers have numerous symbolic meanings, some of the most significant being loyalty, purity and love. In the late fifteenth century, roses were popular in medieval Europe for their connection to romantic love and were used in many ceremonies, including weddings.

As for "yearly baths," the idea that medieval people rarely bathed is a persistent but false one. Most people washed themselves on a regular basis. Going without washing was considered a penance even in the early Middle Ages. Soap, possibly invented by the Gauls sometime before Christ, was in widespread use throughout Europe by the end of the ninth century, and made its first appearance in cake form in the twelfth century. Public bathhouses were not uncommon, although their ostensible purpose was often secondary to their clandestine use by prosititutes.

..there is no evidence that the term "dirt poor" was used in any context before the 20th century. One theory suggests that its origins lie in the Dust Bowl of 1930s Oklahoma, where drought and poverty combined to create some of the most horrific living conditions in American history; but direct evidence is lacking.


Meat was indeed scarce for the poorest peasants, but the one type of meat they were most likely to have was meat they could preserve for an extended period. This was done by smoking, curing or salting. In medieval Europe, the most popular meat for smoking was pork. Smoked and cured ham or bacon would be edible far longer than any other type of meat, and thus was a thrifty choice for a peasant on the edge of starvation. Bacon was therefore no status symbol. Freshly-slaughtered meat was more of a special treat among peasants.

Ignorance is a gift... - RATM


Burtman

dang, a reply to it :glugglug

"The first known written mention of soap was on Sumerian clay tablets dating about 2500 BC. They were found in the area of the Tigris and Euphrates river. The tablets spoke of the use of soap in the washing of wool. Another Sumerian tablet, dating 2200 BC, describes a `soap' [this author's `..'] formulation of water, alkali and cassia oil. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from about 1500 BC, shows evidence that Egyptians bathed regularly and that they combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like (sic) substance for washing."

link here

Both accurate and inaccurate, all of it is interesting :)

soap is a beautiful thing. one molecule is attracted to dirt, the other is attracted by water.

the LEGEND i was taught was that women used to wash the clothes in the water at the base of Mount Sapon. At the top of Mount Sapon was where they sacrificed animals. the ash and rendered fat fell into the water and clothes washed in it were super clean! hence: saponification/soap. but that's probably bullshit as well :winkwink:

:thumbsup
Oz

Same here :)
Interesting facts...got more ?

About the bath thing... From what I learnt ppl used to be afraid of water. They would get parasites and back then they didn't understand them. So they hardly ever took baths.

It is possible that some of those "facts" are true, but if so only by accident. Enough of them are patently false, that it is clear that someone just sat down and wrote whatever the hell they felt like. I've seen this list a number of times before, and it is a constant reminder not to believe everything you see on the internet.

I believe EVERYTHING I read on the net :winkwink:

or "I want to believe it, therefore it is true."

say that is not true

If anyone is interested, here is the page Burtman copied this all from (word-for-word I might add):
http://historymedren.about.com/libra.../aa042202c.htm

He is quoting no less a historical authority than about.com :1orglaugh

Before you spend your time pretending to great knowledge on a subject and deriding other people's posts, do a little research. Regular bathing was not a staple of western cultures even into the 1700s. This was not as true for the wealthier classes but for the majority of people, fears of disease and superstitions about water caused them to avoid what they considered excessive washing. When small numbers of Westerners started mingling with Japanese culture in the late 1600s they were amazed at the fastidious cleanliness of the Asians. In fact, <B>to this very day</B> many Japanese believe westerners do not bathe regularly and smell bad. Read accounts of any American who has traveled to Japan or ask someone you know who has gone there; they all report the wrinkled noses and people avoiding sitting near them on public transportation and in public areas.

During medieval times (still on western cultures, here, say... England) and going forward, regular bathing was <B>not</B> common among the common people. Basic scrubbing up with a washcloth, yes, actual bathing, no. We are talking about people who dumped raw sewage outside their front doors and let it run in the street which facilitated numerous terrible disease outbreaks. Even allowing that they didn't have better ways to take care of their waste, even basic hygiene would have helped but instead people died by the tens of thousands. These were not people obsessed with cleanliness.


Again, if you're going to use someone else's words at least do a little research. The article you quoted (without giving credit) does <B>not</B> make any statement that the people would bathe regularly, just that it would be more than once a year. Also, the term "washing" is used. You can "wash" with a piece of cloth and some sand to get the worst of the grime off you but it doesn't necessarily count as bathing.

I followed the link to the page claiming that medieval man "loved" to bathe (which it states means they "probably" bathed more than they did in the 19th century - whoop de do) and it sounds like about as much bullshit as the yearly bath theory. The people probably didn't bathe once a year and they almost certainly didn't spend all their time idling in public baths either, as that page seems to claim.

SpaceAce

When was the shower invented ?

This is an old folklore/urban legend. Check snopes.com