If you ask any person what cleanliness is, the answers will line up in a long chain of sanitary and hygienic measures. However, cleanliness is not only washed hands, floors and dishes. This is well known to jewelers, programmers or linguists. And the way people imagined cleanliness in the distant Middle Ages can shock any modern person.
Washing the body is harmful to he alth
In medieval Europe, the concepts of spiritual and bodily purity were intertwined in the most bizarre way. The Catholic Church did not welcome other ablutions, except for baptism and before the wedding, so people literally did not wash. And if they had to, they bathed right in their linen, with the whole family in the same water.
We went to bed without undressing, and clothes were changed once a season, when it probably already hindered movement. For washing, a concentrated solution of wood ash was used, in which the linen was soaked, then taken to the river, where dirt and lye were beaten out of it with oars.
Both the nobility and commoners with such hygiene often got sick, because they had no idea aboutthat cleanliness is the key to he alth. For the unsanitary conditions that prevailed in houses and on the streets, Europeans paid with millions of lives during the bubonic plague pandemic. By the way, the cleanest medieval rulers are Isabella of Castile and Louis XIV, who bathed only twice in their lives.
And in ancient Rome, in the homeland of hygiene and baths, they bathed much more willingly, brushed their teeth with dried mouse brains and washed clothes with urine, which corrodes dirt well.
Fortunately, with the development of medicine and industry, people believed in the bactericidal properties of soap, and then Fritz Henkel arrived in time with his washing powder.
Cleanliness at the service of famous brands
The famous German company Henkel, founded in 1876, gave the world the first laundry detergent in factory packaging. Two years later, another product appeared - bleaching soda.
In the New World, Procter & Gamble, who released Dreft in 1933, became the first manufacturer of washing powders. Specialized products for washing dishes, floors, windows began to appear, and it turned out that cleanliness is a real pleasure.
And the inhabitants of the USSR waited for the "News" of domestic production only in 1953 and actively continued to use washboards.
Meanwhile, washing machines were rapidly improving in the US and Europe. Surprisingly, the first automatic assistant was released back in 1949!
Our prototype "Eureka" appeared only in the 70s. He was replaced by the famous "Vyatka-automatic"- the brainchild of the Vesta plant, located in Kirov. Since 2005, the company has been owned by the Italian brand Candy.
Today, manufacturers of cleaning, detergent and hygiene products are not in danger of being left without work, because their products will always be the most in demand after food. And for whom the concept of cleanliness is not associated with laundry, cleaning and bath procedures?
Jewellery, linguistics and more
Specialists of cleaning companies are undoubtedly adherents of cleanliness. Here we also include housewives and their hard, sometimes thankless, work. Now let's see for whom the meaning of the word "purity" takes on its own meaning:
- B. I. Lenin bequeathed to his comrades-in-arms to keep clean the great and honorary title of a party worker.
- For a linguist, the purity of speech is important. This means the absence of parasitic words in the lexicon.
- Every jeweler is familiar with the concept of diamond clarity. It includes indicators of transparency, the ability of the stone to reflect and scatter light.
- Specialists in the field of computer technology have knowledge of the purity of the programming language (Haskell, Clean).
- Legally perfect patent rights are called patent purity.
- Propaganda of racial purity is one of the Nazi policies.
- Bible commandment: do not love your neighbor's wife. It reflects the purity of relations between people better than any words. Ideas about a strong married life are based on this thesis.
- Spiritual purity hasimportant today. And in China, a whole palace ensemble with the same name is dedicated to this concept.
Palace of Supreme Purity
In the mountains of Longhushan stands the ancient Taoist temple complex Shangqing, which translates from Chinese as "highest purity". Built in the 2nd century AD. e. Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism, burned down the beautiful palace in 1930, but was completely restored in the style of the ancient Song Empire.
Excursion to the origins of Taoism will be of interest to fans of Chinese culture and architecture. There are 2 majestic palaces, 12 pavilions, among which there is a pavilion of imprisoned evil spirits.
24 ritual courtyards are dedicated to the highest spiritual purity, separated by gates and passages, for example, the Magic Star Gate and the Passage to the Spirit World.
Keeping a clean mind and body is commendable and deserves respect. However, moderation is important in everything. Pathological cleanliness is regarded as a serious mental illness.
Maniacal Pursuit
The fear of dirt and sewage is called ripophobia. From this arises an obsessive desire to keep oneself and surrounding objects in perfect cleanliness. A person is unbalanced by a crumb of bread on the floor, a drop on the countertop and everything that a sick imagination associates with a potential breeding ground for infections.
Reepophobes are not born. The reason for the rejection may be raising a child in excessive cleanliness, when the baby is forbidden to take other people's toys, scolded for soiled clothes, orforced to wash their hands too often. The fragile children's psyche begins to perceive any dirt as a manifestation of danger.
In adulthood, with a high proportion of suggestibility, ripophobes become because of the frightening prospect of contracting hepatitis, AIDS or skin diseases. A person withdraws into himself, is afraid to communicate with people, subordinates his life to disinfection and sterilizes almost everything he touches.
The phobic condition is successfully treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy, in advanced cases with medication. Therefore, we can say that everything is good in moderation, and this statement applies not least to purity.
