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CHAMBERLAIN-D-request(a)rootsweb.com on 9/1/00 11:35 AM
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Only if you are bored.
These is really interesting (and TRUE!!)
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May
and
were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were starting to
smell,
so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.
I don't buy it. The month of May is closely associated with The Virgin
Mary. Therefore it would have been tacky to have the defolwering that
goes with marriage going on during the month of the Virgin! Also,
marriages were prohibited during lent which often lasts into the end of
April. The June wedding tradition is the result of pent up demand and
not on some sort of bathing tradition. The flowers evolved out of the
tradition of the bride carrying or wearing in her hair rosemary flowers,
which by the way are the "something blue" of the bride's rhyme. Has
everyone heard that "Rosemary is for Remeberance"? Well, originally it
was for FIDELITY! so the brides wore it both as a symbol of their own
virtue and as a reminder to the groom.
Baths equaled 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 pets... dogs, cats and
other small animals, mice, rats, 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 cat
Cats ok, but dogs in the rafters??