Some of the customs and sayings we use today originated in the 16th century. Here are just some of the habits and aphorisms we picked up from our ancestors.

In the 1500’s, most people got married in June, because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June! However, they soon started to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths at the time consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice, clean water, then it was the rest of the men’s turn, then the women, children, and last of all the babies. The water was so dirty now 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 off the roof. Hence the saying ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’.

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 added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance. Hence the saying ‘thresh hold’.

Sometimes people would 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’.

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 whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the drinkers 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’.

In England at the time (16th century), 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, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside. 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’.