Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June.  However, they were starting 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.

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 dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.  When it rained it became slimy & slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.  Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.  This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed.  Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.  That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

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 kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside.  A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway.  Hence the saying a “thresh hold.”

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 whisky.  The combination would sometimes knock them 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.”

England is old and small and the 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, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive.  So they thought 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.”