It's always bothered me that people equated "not bathing" with "not washing". CF the statement that Elizabeth of England had a bath once a month "whether she needed it or not" and cries of "urr, they must have been filthy!" No, she *washed* daily, but once a month she reclined in a large tub of hot water strewn with medicinal herbs, whether she was ill or not, because this was a medical cure (and gee, Male Person who originally made the judgement, your Queen likes to soak in hot water for an hour or three once every 28 days whether or not she has a cold...that's weird, said no woman who's had menstrual cramps.) There is a lot of energy and effort to collect and heat a bath's worth of water, but you can *wash* with a single cup of it. Needs to be said more.
Exactly. The medieval English monastic situation of "4 *baths* per year" was similar, wherein only 4 *immersion* baths were dictated (I've been told by a few Benedictine & Franciscan monks that this was primarily related to asceticism & vows of poverty, as immersion bathing in a tub was a "luxury" deemed indulgence), but regular *washing* of the hands-face & limbs-torso-hair (essentially a good old fashioned "sink bath" at a basin, accompanied by shaving) was stressed & encouraged. There's evidence in 11th Century texts that were written to teach Latin to *monastic students* at the time which discuss washing & shaving within the Latin lessons 😆 There was even monastic sign language for monks who had taken a vow of silence, dating back at least to the 10-11th Century, that has an extensive number of signs related to washing & shaving. It's unlikely that thorough & comprehensive signs, codified enough to be documented in a period manual of Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language, would develop regarding activities that were rarities 🙌 All of which suggests monastic cleanliness being encouraged & likely that *washing* 🧼 was a regular occurrence, whereas just luxury "indulgence" in tub *baths* 🛀 was reserved for special times of year 🙂
I am writing an article on Elizabeth and this annoying myth that just won't die. I can't find any mention of the "needed or not" quote before the 1920s... it may all be complete nonsense! And yes, she had bath rooms in her palaces, had a travel bath for on the road, was washed daily, etc. So I'm pretty sure she bathed more than once a month. The only story that comes close is that during the last years of her life, when she was ill, old etc. that she didn't like people washing her and bathing her, so I think her not wanting to bathe or not wanting other people to touch and fuss about her, or just see her naked and without make-up, may relate to that period. And frankly I can't blame her. Anyway, something that I still need writing ;)
The Aztecs independently invented aquaducts, steam baths, soap all sorts of other hygiene products, and even rubber duckies, before the Spanish showed up. This leads me to believe than it is human nature to bathe and invent ways to make it easier and pleasant.
When I was little I asked my dad if it was true that people in the past only took a bath once a year. He laughed and asked me if I knew what "lørdag" (Saturday in norwegian) means. He then told me it comes from old Norse "laugr day", literally bath day.
I was gonna comment on the same thing, but from a Swedish POV. It's "lördag" here too. I love how we can get an insight into past cultures just by analysing the language they used (and the same goes for present ones)! :D
This myth goes so far back that's it even a trope. Fact: they had soap and made soap. Fact: people did bathe when possible. Sadly, bathing was not always possible. Fact: people did understand that being clean was good for personal health. So, they did try to be clean even when they couldn't bathe daily. And let's not forget that being smelly was not socially acceptable and never had been. There is a huge difference between not bathing and not washing.
I can guarantee you that you can in fact easily stay smell free with a bowl of water a day and all the better if it is warm and you have a cloth for a bit of rubbing. Soap, although I love French milled soap, is not absolutely needed although if you’ve really gotten greasy it’s a plus. The important bits of simple washing is start with your face and ears, and work towards your lower body washing down so you keep the dirtiness going towards the floor. It’s a plus if you get a back scrub but the area of biggest attention should be your neither areas and pits. Those are the real areas of odor. You do need to soak your feet regularly and cut your nails, obviously. I had a year where due to serious abdominal surgery I needed to do alternative bathing. It wasn’t as luxurious as soaking in the bath but it was adequate.
I've heard that one reason why the Vikings were so successful in integrating with other cultures is that they were considered physically attractive, tall, clean and well groomed. The bathhouse culture did decline here in Sweden as well and the communal bath house (badstuga) was banned by law in 1725 (also due to a rise in venereal disease, like in the rest of Europe). By the end of the 19th century the advancement in medicine and in living standards meant there was a rise in interest regarding personal hygiene. Bathhouses were built around the turn of the century to clean the people, who by then had gotten quite grubby, especially the poor (and this was during the poorest years in Sweden's history, when people emigrated to escape starvation and the world's first charity concert was held to aid the poor Swedes - so everyone was poor). However, the old communal bath houses never really made a comeback. There is still a culture around the "bastu" (derivative of badstuga) which is a steam room or sauna, but there aren't communal ones in every neighbourhood like there would have been in the days before indoor plumbing and before the ban on bath houses. We still have a pretty relaxed attitude towards nudity as something natural (as in - nakedness isn't necessarily sexual or sinful) but since our culture is getting more and more Americanized and everything is more sexualized, that attitude is sadly disappearing. Hopefully the international rise in body positivity will counteract it. Sorry for the essay, I just happened to have gone down this rabbit hole before due to a book series I read a while back by Maria Gustavsdotter ("Fem pärlor till jungfruns krona" - sadly not in English, but a wonderful story capturing the life of women in the 1500's). It included so many fantastic historical facts about life back then. She really did her research! Can recommend to any Swedish speakers out there!
This book sounds like a great read, wonder if someone/anyone will take the time and energy to translate for those of us who are linguistically challenged...
I wonder if on a computer, Google translate would work with a Xerox copy of the pages for this wonderful book you mentioned. When I was writing papers a few years ago they had to be peer reviewed and the footnotes often with the original text in another language, translated (& who translated etc...). Fooling around with the foreign languages, I was amazed at what Google translate was capable of. Of course I was not sure of how good the translation was??? I was reminded of the old joke of the Monk in the basement transcribing the Bible. He was unhappy with the small script of the copy that he was transcribing from, so he took down the original Bible to finish the copy of the Bible he was making.. Another Monk found him sitting there crying and asked him what was the matter. The Monk replied in tears, "The word is Celebrate, not Celibate." It's an old joke about human error. & Trust I think. 🤔😐☺️😂
Viking ?.... It was probably more that they killed people who objected to them stealing their land. People worked out that pretending to like them was better for their health.
I believe that people have always bathed as much as they were able...with more difficulty if you were poor--and already tired by scratching a living. But hauling and heating water, doing laundry, many things like that were more laborious. (Lived that way for a few years. Cleanliness is next Godliness, and damned near as difficult!)
I am coming into this really late (found you through CoCOVID), but can I say how much I appreciate you addressing the fact that "people in the Middle Ages never bathed, because (plague/religion/etc)" erases all the peoples in the rest of the world who bathed regularly *at that time* I especially appreciate your mention of the Incas and the Mayas--what is now Latin America is all too often erased from historical discussions of all periods. When the Spanish reached the Caribbean and from there what is now Mexico, and from there the rest of what we now call the American continent, they found people whose hygiene was vastly superior to their own at the time. There was running water, in the form of an aqueduct, in Tenochtitlán by the time Hernán Cortéz landed in Veracruz in 1519. (edited to correct they year ::head desk::) Thank you.
It absolutely has to be said, and thank you for adding to the knowledge here. In 2020 it’s not acceptable to use Europe as a blanket source of historical information.
Great point! I believe there might be a typo on the year of Cortez took Veracruz it was July of 1519. I remember one of my history teachers in high school telling us, how disgusting the native people found the Spaniards ( granted they been in a boat for ages) and our people have always had baths and temazcal, to clean themselves. I can not substantiate any of these cause high school was in the late 80’s early 90’s for me, but remember having a great laugh about it (I grew in Mexico City).
@@TheWelshViking and only a small part of Europe at that. We in the north (yes if I wanted a holiday in south i'd come to Edinburgh) never stopped bathing.
From a Historian and Anthropologist, I am very happy to have found your work. I'm a bit jealous that you have gotten to work on a dig or two. Please keep this stuff coming.
The German "medieval tavern music" band "Die Streuner" (The strays) has a song about medieval bathing: "Ein Hoch dem Bader" (Praise the bather/barber). I like it, because it breaks with the concept of "everyone was dirty medieval times and hated water". Some of the lyrics: "O water, cold, we sure drink you before we die of thirst and thank you well But we rather drink beer or wine 'cause water belongs hot in our tub" Original: "O Wasser, kalt, wohl trinken wir dich eh wir verdursten und danken dir. Doch lieber saufen wir Bier oder Wein, denn Wasser soll heiß im Zuber sein"
That sounds like the Bath Song from The Lord of the Rings: Sing hey! for the bath at close of day that washes the weary mud away! A loon is he that will not sing: O! Water Hot is a noble thing! O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain, and the brook that leaps from hill to plain; but better than rain or rippling streams is Water Hot that smokes and steams. O! Water cold we may pour at need down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed; but better is Beer if drink we lack, and Water Hot poured down the back. O! Water is fair that leaps on high in a fountain white beneath the sky; but never did fountain sound so sweet as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
Bit of a shame that we didn't have more of a bathhouse tradition in the states. While it's true that some exist, due to immigrants bringing the tradition with them, but other than that, no. Generally speaking, being naked around others is not something that is socially acceptable here, except in some cases, like lockerrooms, and don't you dare enjoy sex! We're so ridiculously repressed in this country, it's absolutely maddening. Bathing parties with food, and drink, should be a thing. Thanks, Jimmy, love the creaky chair, it adds ambiance.
Damnit, I knew that when I insisted on following the family tradition of the lads going swimming mid-wedding reception, I hadn't made it sound odd enough to my British in-laws. Luckily for me, they were good sports anyway and swam in the Baltic Sea, straight out of the sauna at our venue. And they didn't even moan much about having to do it in mid-winter.
@@laulutar I bet it was, and reminds me a bit of my brothers wedding. So hot, that once all the other guests left, we ran to the pool, and jumped in. Guys in their tuxes, and us ladies in our 27 layers of taffeta. Not quite the family tradition you describe, but still a lot of fun.
Ah, the creakiness is fine, it's a homely charm! Great video btw, this misconception is one of my biggest pet peeves (and I'm also rather fascinated by medieval European bathing and grooming practices). I think the idea of spending a day with your lads in perfumed water with snacks sounds fantastic, and it's silly that we don't have such nice bathhouses anymore (when there's not a plague on, of course). Basically the only equivalent I can think of are spas, Finnish saunas and hot tubs, and Japanese onsen.
Lock down 2020 Jimmy looks so different! I've been binge watching so much lately it's crazy. So intelligent and informative about so many interesting topics. I never understood the whole thing of people not bathing. It's weird and doesn't make sense, they're practices were just different then ours now.
I lived in Japan during a year as a university student. In my dorm, there was a communal ofuro. It is the best social experience I have ever had. After a day out studying and working, coming home and meeting up your friends to chat, gossip, and bathe in hot water is the best thing! I wish bath houses were more common in the west
This inspired me to groom my scalp & hair & wash And be immensely grateful at the luxury of hot running water & "healthful" (modern) hypoallergenic liquid soap Thank you! 💗
That’s so kind, thanks! I think I have some research material on it as it happens. There will be an Edinburgh Festival video, even if there is no festival!
I just discovered your channel, so this, obviously, is my first video of yours. Very well done and a very interesting topic I've wondered about for years. Very much looking forward to your other videos. By the way, is that a Welsh accent?
The Welsh Viking My great grandfather was from south Wales, Dowlais. Apparently, according to DNA, my family have been there up to 8000 years ago. I imagine Dowlais changed a great deal over that time.
Wampanoag actually in Massachusetts. Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia (Descendants, the Chickahominy, Mattaponi, and Pamunkey still live there. One group even has a casino, so they are real Native Americans!)
Watching this on 14 November, 2020 (recently found your channel btw, great stuff) and hearing you say you're filming in the middle of the covid pandemic... then noticing it was released on 16 April... oh, my sweet summer child lol
friend of mine linked me to a chronicle that explained an 1002 progrom against Danes by AngloSaxons in britain on the grounds that 'they washed every day and combed their hair, therefore attracted all our women away... so" Dx
Another great video Jimmy. Have you read the etiquette book by Richard II? He was quite possible OCD about people washing their hands and faces before meals having a clean knife and linen napkin and not wiping your nose on the table cloth? I haven't read it but I have seen extracts of it in various places. The wonderful and sadly late CDW does a brilliant film on the Forme of Currye (sp?) Which she explores some of his ettiqute rules
When studying this for the Low Countries I found that many Dutch houses/farms had their own wells, more than one, although often just a hole, sometimes enforced with a barrel, so not the pretty fairytale stone wells we know from all the films, but a source of clean water nevertheless. Getting water would involve just walking into your yard, even in cities, and pull up a bucket, making washing and drinking a lot less effort than I had always imagined. Of course, water is a bit easier to get to in some parts of the world than others, especially here in the Netherlands, but I'm now interested in checking out archaeological data on how many wells there were and how close to houses, etc. Also that's not how you pronounce Brabant ;) On a side note, I always enjoy that it was the 'barbaric' Western European tribes that introduced the Romans to soap! Btw, I have read some European settlers writing about American natives not washing, a Dutch (them again) minister wrote in 1644 that the Iroquois were not washing their hands or skin.
This video was great! There are bathhouse still operating in South Korea. I had the opportunity to go to one when I lived there and its a fun experience. W ierd to my western mind but fun ☺
As soon as you mentioned Queen Caroline as said she was famous for bathing in..., a deep part of my subconscious mind went "...*gasp* In TURPENTINE?!!"
Fart on our pillowcases?!!? Is that what Vikings did to get back at each other for the random bad mouthing in the market place? Jimmy I love your channel.
I don't bathe daily, that would dry up my skin, I need my sebum... but I do bathe regularly (every other day)... bathing daily seems a little excessive to me. Also water sanitization is the thing... bathing creates greywater... community responsibility is a thing... I think you see where I'm going with that.
Medieval people believed that illness and disease were caused by the “four humours”. They were Blood, Phelgm, Yellow Bile, and Black Bile. If a person was ill it was because of an imbalance in the humours. This likely meant if a person had a strong body odor, then it was an imbalance of the humours and citizens would definitely stay away from such people. Bathing regularly would be a preventative against strong body odor and if they did not have an odor they would be considered “clean” and not ostracized from society. So yes Medieval people bathed to keep the four humours in balance. The knowledge of bacteria as causes of diseases was unknown. They knew something caused people to become ill. So bad odors was a symptom of the humours being out of balance. Those crazy medieval beliefs!
Another great video Jimmy. Have you read the etiquette book by Richard II? He was quite possible OCD about people washing their hands and faces before meals having a clean knife and linen napkin and not wiping your nose on the table cloth? I haven't read it but I have seen extracts of it in various places. The wonderful and sadly late CDW does a brilliant film on the Forme of Currye (sp?) Which she explores some of his ettiqute rules
It's always bothered me that people equated "not bathing" with "not washing". CF the statement that Elizabeth of England had a bath once a month "whether she needed it or not" and cries of "urr, they must have been filthy!" No, she *washed* daily, but once a month she reclined in a large tub of hot water strewn with medicinal herbs, whether she was ill or not, because this was a medical cure (and gee, Male Person who originally made the judgement, your Queen likes to soak in hot water for an hour or three once every 28 days whether or not she has a cold...that's weird, said no woman who's had menstrual cramps.) There is a lot of energy and effort to collect and heat a bath's worth of water, but you can *wash* with a single cup of it. Needs to be said more.
Exactly, anyone who's gone on a camping trip has done the "hands, face, pits & bits" thing.
Exactly a huge difference between not bathing and not washing.
Exactly.
The medieval English monastic situation of "4 *baths* per year" was similar, wherein only 4 *immersion* baths were dictated (I've been told by a few Benedictine & Franciscan monks that this was primarily related to asceticism & vows of poverty, as immersion bathing in a tub was a "luxury" deemed indulgence), but regular *washing* of the hands-face & limbs-torso-hair (essentially a good old fashioned "sink bath" at a basin, accompanied by shaving) was stressed & encouraged.
There's evidence in 11th Century texts that were written to teach Latin to *monastic students* at the time which discuss washing & shaving within the Latin lessons 😆
There was even monastic sign language for monks who had taken a vow of silence, dating back at least to the 10-11th Century, that has an extensive number of signs related to washing & shaving. It's unlikely that thorough & comprehensive signs, codified enough to be documented in a period manual of Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language, would develop regarding activities that were rarities 🙌
All of which suggests monastic cleanliness being encouraged & likely that *washing* 🧼 was a regular occurrence, whereas just luxury "indulgence" in tub *baths* 🛀 was reserved for special times of year 🙂
I am writing an article on Elizabeth and this annoying myth that just won't die.
I can't find any mention of the "needed or not" quote before the 1920s... it may all be complete nonsense!
And yes, she had bath rooms in her palaces, had a travel bath for on the road, was washed daily, etc.
So I'm pretty sure she bathed more than once a month.
The only story that comes close is that during the last years of her life, when she was ill, old etc. that she didn't like people washing her and bathing her, so I think her not wanting to bathe or not wanting other people to touch and fuss about her, or just see her naked and without make-up, may relate to that period.
And frankly I can't blame her.
Anyway, something that I still need writing ;)
The Aztecs independently invented aquaducts, steam baths, soap all sorts of other hygiene products, and even rubber duckies, before the Spanish showed up. This leads me to believe than it is human nature to bathe and invent ways to make it easier and pleasant.
The rubber duck? For baths? This sounds too good to be true!
@@snazzypazzy They found hollow rubber toys. We can only hope they made it into the bath.
@@snazzypazzy Right! Rubber duckies! Reckon we need a history of bath toys now :)
When I was little I asked my dad if it was true that people in the past only took a bath once a year. He laughed and asked me if I knew what "lørdag" (Saturday in norwegian) means. He then told me it comes from old Norse "laugr day", literally bath day.
I was gonna comment on the same thing, but from a Swedish POV. It's "lördag" here too. I love how we can get an insight into past cultures just by analysing the language they used (and the same goes for present ones)! :D
I'm glad you said it first. I remembered that Norse had a specific day of the week, but didn't remember what they called it.
This myth goes so far back that's it even a trope. Fact: they had soap and made soap. Fact: people did bathe when possible. Sadly, bathing was not always possible. Fact: people did understand that being clean was good for personal health. So, they did try to be clean even when they couldn't bathe daily. And let's not forget that being smelly was not socially acceptable and never had been. There is a huge difference between not bathing and not washing.
I can guarantee you that you can in fact easily stay smell free with a bowl of water a day and all the better if it is warm and you have a cloth for a bit of rubbing. Soap, although I love French milled soap, is not absolutely needed although if you’ve really gotten greasy it’s a plus. The important bits of simple washing is start with your face and ears, and work towards your lower body washing down so you keep the dirtiness going towards the floor. It’s a plus if you get a back scrub but the area of biggest attention should be your neither areas and pits. Those are the real areas of odor. You do need to soak your feet regularly and cut your nails, obviously. I had a year where due to serious abdominal surgery I needed to do alternative bathing. It wasn’t as luxurious as soaking in the bath but it was adequate.
I've heard that one reason why the Vikings were so successful in integrating with other cultures is that they were considered physically attractive, tall, clean and well groomed.
The bathhouse culture did decline here in Sweden as well and the communal bath house (badstuga) was banned by law in 1725 (also due to a rise in venereal disease, like in the rest of Europe).
By the end of the 19th century the advancement in medicine and in living standards meant there was a rise in interest regarding personal hygiene. Bathhouses were built around the turn of the century to clean the people, who by then had gotten quite grubby, especially the poor (and this was during the poorest years in Sweden's history, when people emigrated to escape starvation and the world's first charity concert was held to aid the poor Swedes - so everyone was poor). However, the old communal bath houses never really made a comeback. There is still a culture around the "bastu" (derivative of badstuga) which is a steam room or sauna, but there aren't communal ones in every neighbourhood like there would have been in the days before indoor plumbing and before the ban on bath houses. We still have a pretty relaxed attitude towards nudity as something natural (as in - nakedness isn't necessarily sexual or sinful) but since our culture is getting more and more Americanized and everything is more sexualized, that attitude is sadly disappearing. Hopefully the international rise in body positivity will counteract it.
Sorry for the essay, I just happened to have gone down this rabbit hole before due to a book series I read a while back by Maria Gustavsdotter ("Fem pärlor till jungfruns krona" - sadly not in English, but a wonderful story capturing the life of women in the 1500's). It included so many fantastic historical facts about life back then. She really did her research! Can recommend to any Swedish speakers out there!
This book sounds like a great read, wonder if someone/anyone will take the time and energy to translate for those of us who are linguistically challenged...
I wonder if on a computer, Google translate would work with a Xerox copy of the pages for this wonderful book you mentioned.
When I was writing papers a few years ago they had to be peer reviewed and the footnotes often with the original text in another language, translated (& who translated etc...).
Fooling around with the foreign languages, I was amazed at what Google translate was capable of.
Of course I was not sure of how good the translation was???
I was reminded of the old joke of the Monk in the basement transcribing the Bible. He was unhappy with the small script of the copy that he was transcribing from, so he took down the original Bible to finish the copy of the Bible he was making.. Another Monk found him sitting there crying and asked him what was the matter. The Monk replied in tears, "The word is Celebrate, not Celibate."
It's an old joke about human error. & Trust I think. 🤔😐☺️😂
Viking ?.... It was probably more that they killed people who objected to them stealing their land. People worked out that pretending to like them was better for their health.
I believe that people have always bathed as much as they were able...with more difficulty if you were poor--and already tired by scratching a living. But hauling and heating water, doing laundry, many things like that were more laborious. (Lived that way for a few years. Cleanliness is next Godliness, and damned near as difficult!)
I am coming into this really late (found you through CoCOVID), but can I say how much I appreciate you addressing the fact that "people in the Middle Ages never bathed, because (plague/religion/etc)" erases all the peoples in the rest of the world who bathed regularly *at that time*
I especially appreciate your mention of the Incas and the Mayas--what is now Latin America is all too often erased from historical discussions of all periods. When the Spanish reached the Caribbean and from there what is now Mexico, and from there the rest of what we now call the American continent, they found people whose hygiene was vastly superior to their own at the time. There was running water, in the form of an aqueduct, in Tenochtitlán by the time Hernán Cortéz landed in Veracruz in 1519. (edited to correct they year ::head desk::)
Thank you.
It absolutely has to be said, and thank you for adding to the knowledge here. In 2020 it’s not acceptable to use Europe as a blanket source of historical information.
Great point! I believe there might be a typo on the year of Cortez took Veracruz it was July of 1519. I remember one of my history teachers in high school telling us, how disgusting the native people found the Spaniards ( granted they been in a boat for ages) and our people have always had baths and temazcal, to clean themselves. I can not substantiate any of these cause high school was in the late 80’s early 90’s for me, but remember having a great laugh about it (I grew in Mexico City).
@@rosaelenarivera2765 Thank you, have edited the year to the correct one
@@TheWelshViking and only a small part of Europe at that. We in the north (yes if I wanted a holiday in south i'd come to Edinburgh) never stopped bathing.
From a Historian and Anthropologist, I am very happy to have found your work. I'm a bit jealous that you have gotten to work on a dig or two. Please keep this stuff coming.
He's so good at not stuttering or meandering. For someone who did this on the fly he really made it feel like a professor was giving a fun lecture.
The German "medieval tavern music" band "Die Streuner" (The strays) has a song about medieval bathing: "Ein Hoch dem Bader" (Praise the bather/barber). I like it, because it breaks with the concept of "everyone was dirty medieval times and hated water".
Some of the lyrics:
"O water, cold, we sure drink you
before we die of thirst and thank you well
But we rather drink beer or wine
'cause water belongs hot in our tub"
Original:
"O Wasser, kalt, wohl trinken wir
dich eh wir verdursten und danken dir.
Doch lieber saufen wir Bier oder Wein,
denn Wasser soll heiß im Zuber sein"
Ooh danke! This is really fun! It’s going straight into my medieval research playlist!
That sounds like the Bath Song from The Lord of the Rings:
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
Jimmy this was excellent! I have been meaning to watch these and am now hand embroidering a handkerchief and binge watching you!
Bit of a shame that we didn't have more of a bathhouse tradition in the states. While it's true that some exist, due to immigrants bringing the tradition with them, but other than that, no. Generally speaking, being naked around others is not something that is socially acceptable here, except in some cases, like lockerrooms, and don't you dare enjoy sex! We're so ridiculously repressed in this country, it's absolutely maddening. Bathing parties with food, and drink, should be a thing. Thanks, Jimmy, love the creaky chair, it adds ambiance.
Damnit, I knew that when I insisted on following the family tradition of the lads going swimming mid-wedding reception, I hadn't made it sound odd enough to my British in-laws. Luckily for me, they were good sports anyway and swam in the Baltic Sea, straight out of the sauna at our venue. And they didn't even moan much about having to do it in mid-winter.
Good in-laws it sounds like!
@@Amy_the_Lizard they're a good bunch, even when they almost drive me to the limits of my sanity 😄
Sounds like a most excellent wedding, glad the in-laws played along.
@@sekhmara8590 yes, it was a good wedding 😁
@@laulutar I bet it was, and reminds me a bit of my brothers wedding. So hot, that once all the other guests left, we ran to the pool, and jumped in. Guys in their tuxes, and us ladies in our 27 layers of taffeta. Not quite the family tradition you describe, but still a lot of fun.
Oh no the algorithm showed me your content and now I'm stuck in a binge 😌 also being from Brabant, yeah that sounds exactly right, still lol
Question your sources! ...does that mean you? 😁
And of course the Romans bathed regularly: they had a whole city named "Bath"!
Yes! I’m just some incredibly trustworthy random RUclips guy, question everything I say!
@@TheWelshViking No I won't! lol
"Stinking like a midden" is an excellent phrase, and I shall use it in the future! ;)
Ah, the creakiness is fine, it's a homely charm! Great video btw, this misconception is one of my biggest pet peeves (and I'm also rather fascinated by medieval European bathing and grooming practices). I think the idea of spending a day with your lads in perfumed water with snacks sounds fantastic, and it's silly that we don't have such nice bathhouses anymore (when there's not a plague on, of course). Basically the only equivalent I can think of are spas, Finnish saunas and hot tubs, and Japanese onsen.
Your videos are always hilarious. I came for the dressmaking, I stay for the history and comedy. 🤣
Lock down 2020 Jimmy looks so different! I've been binge watching so much lately it's crazy. So intelligent and informative about so many interesting topics. I never understood the whole thing of people not bathing. It's weird and doesn't make sense, they're practices were just different then ours now.
I lived in Japan during a year as a university student. In my dorm, there was a communal ofuro. It is the best social experience I have ever had.
After a day out studying and working, coming home and meeting up your friends to chat, gossip, and bathe in hot water is the best thing!
I wish bath houses were more common in the west
Now I want to go to the hotsprings, damn it
This inspired me to groom my scalp & hair & wash
And be immensely grateful at the luxury of hot running water & "healthful" (modern) hypoallergenic liquid soap
Thank you!
💗
Really well done . MORE!!
Brilliant work Jim. Can we hear you explore the finer workings of the origins of the Edinburgh Festival? Seems quite timely as a subject poss?
That’s so kind, thanks!
I think I have some research material on it as it happens. There will be an Edinburgh Festival video, even if there is no festival!
Fun and fascinating. Thank you Jimmy!
The phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness" has been around forever and was taken fairly seriously, I believe.
I just discovered your channel, so this, obviously, is my first video of yours. Very well done and a very interesting topic I've wondered about for years. Very much looking forward to your other videos. By the way, is that a Welsh accent?
Thank you very much. It is indeed Welsh! North Wales, in fact.
The Welsh Viking My great grandfather was from south Wales, Dowlais. Apparently, according to DNA, my family have been there up to 8000 years ago. I imagine Dowlais changed a great deal over that time.
Good job chief, I will now proceed to watch and comment on all of yer vids tae up the algorithm thingy
Wampanoag actually in Massachusetts. Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia (Descendants, the Chickahominy, Mattaponi, and Pamunkey still live there. One group even has a casino, so they are real Native Americans!)
Sooooo many nations in the “Americas”!
Fun talk
Thank you! This is wonderful.
Please make a rant about the humers
Watching this on 14 November, 2020 (recently found your channel btw, great stuff) and hearing you say you're filming in the middle of the covid pandemic... then noticing it was released on 16 April... oh, my sweet summer child lol
I’m here in July 2021 and yeah....*thousand yard stare*
@@PMcGuffin Ha! Legit! At least we have a vaccine now? Finally got my first dose last week (my country is really slow)
friend of mine linked me to a chronicle that explained an 1002 progrom against Danes by AngloSaxons in britain on the grounds that 'they washed every day and combed their hair, therefore attracted all our women away... so" Dx
I'm dying! Great video!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :)
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Your gonna come to Australia and fart on my pillow case huh?
Donchoo make me!
Wampanoag people in North America lived in (still do) what is now Massachusetts.
Another great video Jimmy. Have you read the etiquette book by Richard II? He was quite possible OCD about people washing their hands and faces before meals having a clean knife and linen napkin and not wiping your nose on the table cloth? I haven't read it but I have seen extracts of it in various places. The wonderful and sadly late CDW does a brilliant film on the Forme of Currye (sp?) Which she explores some of his ettiqute rules
Good stuff
Great video!
Thanks!
I can hear the creakiness, but it doesn't matter. 😉 Good video! 💖
Interesting!
On my pillow?!? Lol 🤣😭💜👾
Rebalancing humours is homeostasis. They got weird ideas how that works, but there is a kernel of truth.
Like your video and sauna is awesome.
Ehh...I still don't get why they designated a liquid as dry... O.o That one has never made any sort of sense to me...
Totally gonna get some din eidyn training vlogs on the go haha
When studying this for the Low Countries I found that many Dutch houses/farms had their own wells, more than one, although often just a hole, sometimes enforced with a barrel, so not the pretty fairytale stone wells we know from all the films, but a source of clean water nevertheless.
Getting water would involve just walking into your yard, even in cities, and pull up a bucket, making washing and drinking a lot less effort than I had always imagined.
Of course, water is a bit easier to get to in some parts of the world than others, especially here in the Netherlands, but I'm now interested in checking out archaeological data on how many wells there were and how close to houses, etc.
Also that's not how you pronounce Brabant ;)
On a side note, I always enjoy that it was the 'barbaric' Western European tribes that introduced the Romans to soap!
Btw, I have read some European settlers writing about American natives not washing, a Dutch (them again) minister wrote in 1644 that the Iroquois were not washing their hands or skin.
Fart in the pillowcase.. LOL I almost spit out my water onto my computer. LOL
Glad you liked it! XD
This is cracking!
A great compliment! Ta!
This video was great! There are bathhouse still operating in South Korea. I had the opportunity to go to one when I lived there and its a fun experience. W ierd to my western mind but fun ☺
As soon as you mentioned Queen Caroline as said she was famous for bathing in..., a deep part of my subconscious mind went "...*gasp* In TURPENTINE?!!"
Fart on our pillowcases?!!? Is that what Vikings did to get back at each other for the random bad mouthing in the market place? Jimmy I love your channel.
❤❤❤❤❤
"The Romans left" has got to be the most anticlimactic description of the fall of Rome that I have ever heard! XD
I don't bathe daily, that would dry up my skin, I need my sebum... but I do bathe regularly (every other day)... bathing daily seems a little excessive to me. Also water sanitization is the thing... bathing creates greywater... community responsibility is a thing... I think you see where I'm going with that.
Sorry to ask non topic question but,,,,,what is this alcohol free stout called please
Errr I think it was bonfire stout by Drop Bear but I could be wrong!
Maximum Smelly
Medieval people believed that illness and disease were caused by the “four humours”. They were Blood, Phelgm, Yellow Bile, and Black Bile. If a person was ill it was because of an imbalance in the humours.
This likely meant if a person had a strong body odor, then it was an imbalance of the humours and citizens would definitely stay away from such people. Bathing regularly would be a preventative against strong body odor and if they did not have an odor they would be considered “clean” and not ostracized from society. So yes Medieval people bathed to keep the four humours in balance. The knowledge of bacteria as causes of diseases was unknown. They knew something caused people to become ill. So bad odors was a symptom of the humours being out of balance.
Those crazy medieval beliefs!
Yeah . . . covid precautions have been "complete bullocks" too.
Another great video Jimmy. Have you read the etiquette book by Richard II? He was quite possible OCD about people washing their hands and faces before meals having a clean knife and linen napkin and not wiping your nose on the table cloth? I haven't read it but I have seen extracts of it in various places. The wonderful and sadly late CDW does a brilliant film on the Forme of Currye (sp?) Which she explores some of his ettiqute rules