bookworm
Feb 14, 2006, 2:40 PM
Today's entry from the Forgotten English calendar:
Alice Morse Earle, writing in Colonial Days of Old New York (1896) described a curious Valentine's Day observance among early Dutch settlers called Vrouwne dagh, or Women's day: "Every young girl sallied forth in the morning armed with a heavy cord with knotted end. She gave every young man whom she met several smart lashes with the knotted cord. Perhaps these were 'love-taps,' and were given with no intent of stinging. Judge Egbert Benson wrote in 1816 that in New York this custom dwindled to a similar Valentine observance by children when the girls chased the boys with many blows. In one school the boys asked for a Mannen dagh (Men's day) in which to repay the girls' stinging lashes." The English author Sir Thomas Brown (1605-1682) speculated that this custom commemorated the martyrdom of St. Valentine, whom the Romans are believed to have persecuted around the year 270.
What can we learn from this?
1. School was a lot more interesting back then...
2. Love-taps were a lot more interesting back then, too...
3. We won't be seeing this on a Hallmark card anytime soon!
Alice Morse Earle, writing in Colonial Days of Old New York (1896) described a curious Valentine's Day observance among early Dutch settlers called Vrouwne dagh, or Women's day: "Every young girl sallied forth in the morning armed with a heavy cord with knotted end. She gave every young man whom she met several smart lashes with the knotted cord. Perhaps these were 'love-taps,' and were given with no intent of stinging. Judge Egbert Benson wrote in 1816 that in New York this custom dwindled to a similar Valentine observance by children when the girls chased the boys with many blows. In one school the boys asked for a Mannen dagh (Men's day) in which to repay the girls' stinging lashes." The English author Sir Thomas Brown (1605-1682) speculated that this custom commemorated the martyrdom of St. Valentine, whom the Romans are believed to have persecuted around the year 270.
What can we learn from this?
1. School was a lot more interesting back then...
2. Love-taps were a lot more interesting back then, too...
3. We won't be seeing this on a Hallmark card anytime soon!