Posted
on July 19, 2016
Flitch
Day is a reeeeallllly old custom—a married couple who could swear
to not regretting their marriage for a year and a day was, in parts
of England, awarded a flitch of bacon. (A flitch is a side of
unsliced bacon.)
The
tradition goes back centuries—back to the 1300s, if not even
earlier. The 14th-Century writer Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned the
awarding of a flitch at a town called Dunmow, which is still one of
the pockets in England associated with the custom.
But,
like so many others, this tradition died out.
A
Victorian Era writer named William Harrison Ainsworth wrote a book
called The Flitch of Bacon—and
the book became way popular and sparked interest in the old
tradition! On this date in 1854, the ceremony was revived after more
than a century of disuse.
These
days, every leap year (but on different dates in that year) there are
Flitch Trials in Great Dunmow. The couples who want to claim their
flitch of bacon go “on trial,” kinda-sorta, and a counsel cross
examines them in an effort to figure out if they really deserve their
bacon! The trial is decided by a jury.
Although
the flitch of bacon was apparently only rarely awarded to couples in
the past, these days it's easier to earn. This year, on July 9, four
English couples were awarded flitches of bacon, and one runner-up
couple was awarded a gammon (which is a ham that has been cured like
bacon).
Somehow
these trials remind me of the movie Defending Your Life.
Also
on this date:
Anniversary of a collaboration between giants
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