Buckles

[poliphilo]

We Brits don't celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, but when I was a kid there was always a bit of a fuss about it and, come November, we generally got exposed to lessons and sermons and even TV programmes about the guys with buckles on their hats.

The buckles were really the most interesting thing about them. I drew pictures of pilgrims emphasizing the buckles. Why should anyone need a buckle up there? Did they tighten the buckles to stop their hats blowing away?

The teachers and preachers and programme makers rather took the line that these were upstanding, religious ENGLISH people and what they did by going to America was advance the manifest destiny of our imperial Anglo-Saxon race.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

All these years of pilgrim hats in school plays, and I never wondered about those buckles until now!

Since Google is so close by, I just checked, and those buckles are a big, fat myth!

MYTH: The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing. They had buckles on their hats, garments, and shoes.

FACT: Buckles did not come into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions. Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black, earthy green, and brown.

Also, the Pilgrims ate with their fingers. They didn't have fancy stuff like forks.

Here's the source.