Hi Again
Spring is in the
air so get that washing out. Open up your house and welcome the fresh air.
Did you ever
wonder about the origins of hygiene and spring cleaning and all that . History
tells us that spring cleaning your home is an old religious ritual that is
driven by the seasons and probably comes from the Jewish Passover or the
Persian New Year. On the other hand personal hygiene habits went through a few
differing incarnations before the effects of medical science, plagues and community
health initiatives have brought us to todays standards.
While the Greeks
and Romans were famous for their Baths, today’s personal hygiene and accepted washing norms are a
little more recent. In ancient Egypt most people bathed daily in the river or
out of a water basin at home. Next it was the ancient Greeks who first built
public baths but it was the Romans who made bathing a daily ritual, even for
slaves, with olive oil being used as a kind of soap.
Wherever they went, the Romans introduced public baths that would not be matched in most of Europe for 1,000 years. The real inheritors of the Roman system of baths were the Arabs and the Turks. Turkish baths play a part later in history.
By the Renaissance however, public baths had more or less died out in western Europe, due largely to the Black Plague, which people thought you would catch more easily if your pores were opened from bathing. Dirt was seen as protecting against germs, while water was thought to be unsanitary. In the early Middle Ages, it was actually considered bad for your health by Christians to wash off dirt and grime - the stink was good.
The habit of cleanliness was largely reimported from the non-European world. The Bengali entrepreneur Shekh Din Muhammad introduced shampoo - a Hindi word - when he set up a ‘shampooing bath' in fashionable Brighton in the UK in 1814. Turkish baths were to become popular during the Victorian era. For most people, however, the whole business of taking off their clothes, getting into water and washing their hair was a time consuming process simply because of the mechanics involved in hauling in the water; heating it on the wood stoves; bringing in the hip baths; making the soap; cleaning the clothes and towels afterwards, etc.
It was only with the introduction of a pre cut soap that every day washing was a possibility for the common man. Sunlight is a brand of household soap originally produced by the company Lever Bros. in 1884. It was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap. Designed for washing clothes and general household use, the success of the product led to the name for the company's village for its workers, Port Sunlight. The soap formula was invented by a chemist named William Hough Watson, who also became an early business partner. Watson's process created a new soap, using glycerine and vegetable oils such as palm oil rather than tallow (animal fats). Lever Brothers invested in Watson's soap invention and its initial success came from offering bars of cut, wrapped, and branded soap in his father's grocery shop.
Despite the new invention of soap, micro and macrobiological sciences of hygiene were only fully incorporated into personal and public healthcare during the first half of the 20th century. War and poverty were still to stand in the way of a modern bathroom for most households for another 50 years. Fully functional family bathrooms were not the norm until after the Second World War.
Today daily showers and bathing, as advocated by the Romans, has returned with the added knowledge derived from medical sciences. The modern bathroom is again a place of pleasure and relaxation in the home.By the way, next time you cross Parliament Bridge in Dublin take a look at the beautifully preserved Sunlight building an architectural treasure from a bygone time.
According to Albert Einstein we should "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
While we will leave the personal hygiene to yourself, ask yourself the question “what is the most efficient way to keep my bathroom spick and span ?” Pristine Home would love to help you with all or any of your home cleaning needs, outside or inside your home, and this will ensure that not only is your home kept neat and tidy on a regular basis but will leave you time to enjoy that leasureily bath or shower, pamper yourself in a jaccuzzi or whatever your having yourself.
Please call 1890252309 or info@pristine.ie or visit our web site and avail of our many cleaning services. Let us do the planning and leave you the time for yourself.
Looking forward to hearing from you Diana
Wherever they went, the Romans introduced public baths that would not be matched in most of Europe for 1,000 years. The real inheritors of the Roman system of baths were the Arabs and the Turks. Turkish baths play a part later in history.
By the Renaissance however, public baths had more or less died out in western Europe, due largely to the Black Plague, which people thought you would catch more easily if your pores were opened from bathing. Dirt was seen as protecting against germs, while water was thought to be unsanitary. In the early Middle Ages, it was actually considered bad for your health by Christians to wash off dirt and grime - the stink was good.
The habit of cleanliness was largely reimported from the non-European world. The Bengali entrepreneur Shekh Din Muhammad introduced shampoo - a Hindi word - when he set up a ‘shampooing bath' in fashionable Brighton in the UK in 1814. Turkish baths were to become popular during the Victorian era. For most people, however, the whole business of taking off their clothes, getting into water and washing their hair was a time consuming process simply because of the mechanics involved in hauling in the water; heating it on the wood stoves; bringing in the hip baths; making the soap; cleaning the clothes and towels afterwards, etc.
It was only with the introduction of a pre cut soap that every day washing was a possibility for the common man. Sunlight is a brand of household soap originally produced by the company Lever Bros. in 1884. It was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap. Designed for washing clothes and general household use, the success of the product led to the name for the company's village for its workers, Port Sunlight. The soap formula was invented by a chemist named William Hough Watson, who also became an early business partner. Watson's process created a new soap, using glycerine and vegetable oils such as palm oil rather than tallow (animal fats). Lever Brothers invested in Watson's soap invention and its initial success came from offering bars of cut, wrapped, and branded soap in his father's grocery shop.
Despite the new invention of soap, micro and macrobiological sciences of hygiene were only fully incorporated into personal and public healthcare during the first half of the 20th century. War and poverty were still to stand in the way of a modern bathroom for most households for another 50 years. Fully functional family bathrooms were not the norm until after the Second World War.
Today daily showers and bathing, as advocated by the Romans, has returned with the added knowledge derived from medical sciences. The modern bathroom is again a place of pleasure and relaxation in the home.By the way, next time you cross Parliament Bridge in Dublin take a look at the beautifully preserved Sunlight building an architectural treasure from a bygone time.
According to Albert Einstein we should "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
While we will leave the personal hygiene to yourself, ask yourself the question “what is the most efficient way to keep my bathroom spick and span ?” Pristine Home would love to help you with all or any of your home cleaning needs, outside or inside your home, and this will ensure that not only is your home kept neat and tidy on a regular basis but will leave you time to enjoy that leasureily bath or shower, pamper yourself in a jaccuzzi or whatever your having yourself.
Please call 1890252309 or info@pristine.ie or visit our web site and avail of our many cleaning services. Let us do the planning and leave you the time for yourself.
Looking forward to hearing from you Diana
posted by Pristine Home @ 13:23
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