Tag: Love
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Victorian Romance: The Art of Cobweb Valentines
Today is Valentine’s Day, a centuries-old holiday celebrating love, strangely on a day commemorating someone’s execution. From the late medieval period in Europe, when courtly love and chivalry were at their peak, it became popular to think of romantic love on this day. By the 18th century, the day had become a time for lovers…
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Ancient Wonders: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
We tend to have a juxtaposed view of the ancient past: that people were simultaneously less advanced than us, with archaic views on women, people of different races, and little technology, but also great forefathers in maths, science, democracy, and capable of creating wondrous feats of engineering that even today we’re not quite sure how…
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Medieval Dating Tips; or, How to Bag Yourself an Eligible Lord or Lady
According to Andreas Capellanus, a late twelfth-century author, “Love is an inborn suffering proceeding from the sight and immoderate thought upon the beauty of the other sex”. This Valentine’s Day, whether you have a special someone or not, I’m sure that, like mine, your Facebook feed is probably full of engagements, gushing declarations of love,…
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Origins of Wedding Traditions
With all of the engagements announced over the festive period, my friends and I were discussing weddings we had been to and what we might like for our own weddings one day. My friends seemed mildly impressed by some of my basic knowledge of where some of the traditions we tend to celebrate in England…
Just History Posts 