Have you ever wondered how some "Say" might have born or came into usage. Right from my childhood I had this fascination of how things started to exist. Here are some say that I read somewhere and I would like to share them.
It's Raining Cats and Dogs:
In the those days, say 14th century or somewhere then, the houses had thick straw piled roofs. These thatched roofs where harbouring all the house pets like hens, dogs, cats and whichever finds a way to climb atop. It was warmer there. But in days of heavy rain they sometime slip and fall down off the roof, and hence came the say "it's raining cats and dogs". (Image courtesy http://www.vitalnetworks.com)
The well-off, in those days, had slate floors and were slippery in the cold season, especially in winter. So they spread thresh (straw) to keep their footing. As the season wore on they keep adding more thresh, until it slips outside when doors are opened. To stop them oozing out there were wooden block placed to hold them, they are known as "thresh hold". Yeah you got it....
In those days most of the marriages were held in the month of May, as people used to take their yearly bath by April and they smelled pretty good that invoked them to get attracted (!?!) and married. Once they started to smell by the time of wedding, the bride carried her bouquet to conceal the odour. But the custom of carrying a bouquet is continuing, but the bath stuff I don't know...
England, when ran out of space to bury its dead people, Way back couple of centuries. They used to dig the existing graves and found scratch marks in the coffins, when reopened. It was believed, there were 1 out of every 25 such incidents. Realizing that the buried might have been alive and tried to escape from the death trap and fell prey to the fate, they came up with some new ideas. So they tied a string to the corpse and let it come through the ground and the other end was tied to a bell (if you have seen the movie "The Great Train Robbery", Donald Sutherland will be placed inside such a coffin, which had a provision to ring a bell from inside, to sneak into the secured part of the train, for obvious reasons). There will be someone waiting out side to watch for the bell to ring and they stayed all through the night, taking turns in the "graveyard shift" so that someone could be "saved by the bell". There was a custom of "wake" held in Irish families, and they don't mourn till they get conformed that the body has no more life in it, after couple of days wait. Most of the time these guys used to drink a cocktail of ale and whiskey, which knocks them for days and this made the others to think of the person is a dead one already. STRANGE!
Though these above information may have an alleged nature by itself, they are interesting to know... ain't they?
Thanks to Matt Simpson for sharing the info. If you've got any comments or know any cause to some say just annotate them too.
It's Raining Cats and Dogs:
In the those days, say 14th century or somewhere then, the houses had thick straw piled roofs. These thatched roofs where harbouring all the house pets like hens, dogs, cats and whichever finds a way to climb atop. It was warmer there. But in days of heavy rain they sometime slip and fall down off the roof, and hence came the say "it's raining cats and dogs". (Image courtesy http://www.vitalnetworks.com)The well-off, in those days, had slate floors and were slippery in the cold season, especially in winter. So they spread thresh (straw) to keep their footing. As the season wore on they keep adding more thresh, until it slips outside when doors are opened. To stop them oozing out there were wooden block placed to hold them, they are known as "thresh hold". Yeah you got it....
In those days most of the marriages were held in the month of May, as people used to take their yearly bath by April and they smelled pretty good that invoked them to get attracted (!?!) and married. Once they started to smell by the time of wedding, the bride carried her bouquet to conceal the odour. But the custom of carrying a bouquet is continuing, but the bath stuff I don't know...
England, when ran out of space to bury its dead people, Way back couple of centuries. They used to dig the existing graves and found scratch marks in the coffins, when reopened. It was believed, there were 1 out of every 25 such incidents. Realizing that the buried might have been alive and tried to escape from the death trap and fell prey to the fate, they came up with some new ideas. So they tied a string to the corpse and let it come through the ground and the other end was tied to a bell (if you have seen the movie "The Great Train Robbery", Donald Sutherland will be placed inside such a coffin, which had a provision to ring a bell from inside, to sneak into the secured part of the train, for obvious reasons). There will be someone waiting out side to watch for the bell to ring and they stayed all through the night, taking turns in the "graveyard shift" so that someone could be "saved by the bell". There was a custom of "wake" held in Irish families, and they don't mourn till they get conformed that the body has no more life in it, after couple of days wait. Most of the time these guys used to drink a cocktail of ale and whiskey, which knocks them for days and this made the others to think of the person is a dead one already. STRANGE!
Though these above information may have an alleged nature by itself, they are interesting to know... ain't they?
Thanks to Matt Simpson for sharing the info. If you've got any comments or know any cause to some say just annotate them too.
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