Strangest Hygiene Practices From The Middle Ages

Strangest Hygiene Practices From The Middle Ages

Shannon Quinn - December 6, 2020

Strangest Hygiene Practices From The Middle Ages
A miniature painting of a public bath from Spain. You can see people in bed in the back corner, as well as leaving together on the left. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

22. Getting Naked In Front of a Crowd Was Totally Normal

In many medieval cultures, public bathing was commonplace. The Romans were especially known for their bath houses. And in the spring and summer, commoners could be spotted using streams and rivers to take a bath on a warm day. Back then, this wasn’t seen as being indecent or strange. Water was scarce, and the process of heating a bath was time-consuming and expensive. So it was also common to share bath water among a lot of people to be less wasteful. However, people are still humans, after all. So public bathing became associated with sensuality. In Japan, they still continue the tradition of public bathing in hot springs today. However, they segregate men from women, so it’s not often that people leave the public bath to hook up.

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