This made me think of all the “rules of etiquette” that my parents and grandparents generation always tried to drill into us but when we asked “why?” all they could answer was “because it’s polite”
So I looked up how these rules got started
-Don’t wear a hat inside: Medieval knights were more vulnerable if they removed their helmets. Because of this, removing it in a church or in the presence of royalty felt like a respectful act of humility. It’s rude to wear a hat indoors because 1500 years ago some soldiers wanted to show God and King that they trusted them not to stab them in the head
-Don’t put your elbows on the table: In the middle ages European royalty didn’t have dining tables in their banquet halls, they used a long board balanced on trestles and covered it with a table cloth. If you leaned on the table it would unbalance and topple. People are still telling kids not to put their elbows on the table because 1500 years ago some nobles didn’t want to be embarrassed by knocking over a make-shift table and ruining a feast
-Men should pull out a woman’s chair for her: There were several periods in Western history when fashion for high society women was so restrictive that they literally couldn’t bend over when dressed for dinner. Men are told it’s polite to pull out a woman’s chair because women used to have to wear clothing that made it impossible to do that herself
I wonder if 1500 years from now people will teach their children it’s impolite to stand closer than six feet from anyone in public because of this disease people used to have to worry about back in the 2000s.
