We continue with the issue of cleaning in the dark medieval era.There are facts as curious as interesting, as we present below.
Curiosities about hygiene in the Middle Ages (Part II)
Get married in June!
Did you know that most European marriages were celebrated in June, at the beginning of summer?
The reason was very simple: in May it was when the first bath of the year was taken , and in June, therefore, the body odor was tolerable.In addition, some smells could indeed be very annoying, and that's why the brides were accompanied by numerous bouquets of flowers in the carriage , to hide them.
Over time it became customary to marry in May, after first bath, and from there happened to be considered the month of flowers and non vias.And there comes also the tradition that brides bring flowers to the wedding.
Where is the bathroom?
In both palaces and in family houses the bathrooms did not exist .Nor did sewage systems.People, then, towards their needs in alleys and courtyards.
The medieval cities were quite dirty, because their streets used to be covered in garbage and excrement, for example, London or Paris, could be considered at that time as two of the dirtiest places in the world. Virginia Woolf , in one of her pictures about London, speaks of the frankly unhealthy state of Tamesis and its shores, and since the dirt was too common.Imagine, she was talking about London in the late 19th century, now think about how it would have been several hundred years ago...
The dishes, made of tin
It was common for those with more resources to have tin plates at their tables.The bad thing was that certain foods oxidized the metal causing many people to get intoxicated and die.
Also, since they did not wash the dishes, hygiene was quite precarious.Tomatoes, for example, because they were acidic, they had the effect of oxidation, and that was one of the reasons why this American fruit was considered toxic for quite some time.
In the glasses the same thing happened, being whiskey or beer , upon contact with the tin, the causes of them suffering from a narcoleptic state.Yes, many were considered dead and began to prepare the burial.
But to make sure they left the body on the table from the kitchen for a few days, there next to who ate and drank, waiting to see if he woke up or not.
This custom came after to watch over the dead .
And with regard to drinking water...
In the Middle Ages, as we have seen, running water services were very precarious.At this time the water from the wells was obtained manually and many times its quality was not good.
But another thing was drinking water.There are many medieval medical records that indicate the appropriateness of drinking water for the body, although always they made the point that "it was not too much." Drink all water, provided it was "clean, and without qualities of taste or smell", but preferred the wine because it was considered more nutritious (which was not lacking in reason), and because they probably liked it better.
In a Coloquio of the 10th century, a young Saxon is asked to drink and he replies: “Beer if I have it or water if I don't have beer.”Phrase reminiscent of the poet Antonio Machado's verse:“ Where there is wine, they drink wine, where there is no wine, fresh water.”
If you are interested in this article you cannot stop reading about bed curiosities medieval.
Images: Lima Pix , Parallax Film , Fidelia Nimmons , Jim Surkamp , Didriks
Comments
Post a Comment