Crazy Customs from the Past Blog Hop and Book Release

by Debra Brown

To our way of thinking, people of the past have had some crazy customs. Packing a picnic lunch to attend and cheer on a hanging comes to mind. Or is it that different than a jumbo popcorn in the center seats to see the gore in full color and best of all, larger than life?

We are used to doing things our way, as people were Then. It comes with practice. I was always confounded by the fact that ladies once wore dresses that dragged in the mud. Surely society would have understood if just a tad of ankle showed to keep the spendy fabrics from becoming filthy and ragged? Or not? It was unfathomable to me until I attended a Renaissance Faire in full dress (to the top of my foot, thank you) and watched more realistic women dragging their acres of fabric in the dust. As my contract required me to hang out for the duration, I adjusted to the sight and with practice learned to accept it as if it were fully normal. I may adjust my social standing for the next event and drag some velvet in my train.

Time traveling is fun. One of the fabulous EHFA writers mentioned the convenience of relieving oneself when attending a Regency banquet--since there were no rooms set aside for the purpose as we have today, a duke or duchess might (would, actually) simply step behind a partition and make use of a chamber pot. How handy is that?

For those of you who enjoy stepping into the past from the safety of your modern day reading room just down the hall from your flushing toilet, we proudly present the beautiful Volume Two of Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors, edited by myself and Sue Millard and published by Madison Street Publishing. As an extra treat, several of our contributors and friends have shed light on various customs, from "Hunting the Wren in Wales and Ireland" to the "17th Century Marriage Day". See below for links to their blogs. We hope you enjoy this blog hop in celebration of our new release.

An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.

From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.

Volume I
          Amazon
       
Volume II
          Amazon


The Kindle copy and links from other venues will be available soon.

English historical customs of Lent - by Deborah Swift

Still life with Stag Beetle, Flegel 1635

The thing we most often associate with Lent is fasting, or the giving up of something we enjoy. Rules of fasting for the forty days of Lent were very strict prior to the Middle Ages. One meal a day, no flesh or fish, no eggs, butter or cheese.

In England, Lent was a season when fruit and vegetables were scarce (no supermarkets!) so the fast must have been more of a deprivation than it was in later years.

As time went by, these laws were relaxed so that by the Middle Ages fish made a return to the fast, and by the fifteenth century, milk products had been re-introduced so that effectively Lent had come to mean meals without meat, and most Lenten meals were fish and vegetables.



Fish was usually salted, dried or cured, because fish goes off quickly without refrigeration..The onset of Lent was marked by street traders who 'beare about a herringe on a staffe, and loude doe roare, Herrings, herrings, stinckinge herrings, puddings now no more...' (Neogeorgus), puddings of course, being like black pudding, made of meat.

After the reformation James I encouraged the eating of fish so that the fish and shipping trades might benefit and Fish on a Friday became an English custom, and is still favoured by schools, hospitals and other institutions. In his diary 10th March 1661, Pepys says he 'dined at home on a poor Lenten dinner of colewarts (cabbage) and bacon.' Not sure whether he is really sticking to the letter of the law with his bacon!

In Lent entertainments of all kinds were curtailed, horse-racing, dancing and even the telling of jokes were frowned upon. Rosencrantz tells Hamlet that the players will give him 'Lenten entertainment' meaning poor or meagre, and the word Lenten came to mean anything grim or dismal, and 'lenten-chaps' a man of dour or sober countenance.

In the 17th century men would leave the powder off their wigs, and even as late as 1816 it was still the custom with some old people to wear black during Lent.
Picture from Michael Hartley's blog

But it was not all doom and gloom.

At the beginning of the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday a straw figure of Jack O'Lent would be paraded through the streets and people would throw things at it, kick it, and eventually, when Easter came, set fire to it. The image was said to represent Judas Iscariot, but common sense tells me this is probably the remnants of an earlier more pagan rite, or more likely something borrowed from the German tradition where a figure of Carnival is sentenced to death just before Lent, and burned on Ash Wednesday to mark the transition into a more reflective time of year.

The Battle between Carnival and Lent by Brueghel (the Younger)

Ben Jonson seems to think that instead of a straw figure, in London this role could be taken on by someone short of money :

'that when last thou wert put out of service, 
Travell'd to Hampstead Heath on an Ash Wednesday 
where thou didst stand six weeks the Jack of Lent, 
For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee 
To make thee a purse.'

This sounds like the equivalent of an 'Aunt Sally' and is not a job I'd like to take on if I was short of money, I have to say!

For many poorer people in the 17th century Lent probably made little difference as they were not in a position to eat meat often anyway. This is certainly the case for  Ella and Sadie Appleby, two wide-eyed country girls who seek fame and fortune and to better their lot in fashionable Restoration London.

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If you'd like to read more about Ella and Sadie, and the rich mansions and dark alleys of 17th century London, THE GILDED LILY is now on special offer in the UK for only £1.32 on Kindle, published by Pan Macmillan, and it is also available in the US in all formats published by St Martin's Press.





Read more about traditions of Lent: http://www.answers.com/topic/lent#ixzz2NEwkl9cS