Historical ritual humiliation of Old Maids

[cclaun]

I have developed a number of AI images of Rituals used in Old Time Germany, Switzerland and Ireland, to humiliate women who failed to marry, bear children and contribute to the fertility and prosperity of the village. These women were thought to endanger the fertility of crops and livestock. They were a danger to the prosperity of the community. There were rituals to shame them, discourage others from following their example, sometimes to drive them out, as scapegoats

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Trial of the Old Maid

Driven from Town in a Manure Cart

Cast out into the Old Maid's Bog.

[cclaun]

In old time Germany women who failed to fulfil their duty of marrying and bearing children, for whatever reason, would be seized on their birthday and forced to scrub the street, on their hands and knees.

[cclaun]

Harnessed to a plow and forced to work in the field. The village turns out to jeer.

[cclaun]

In old time England it was a folk belief that old maids who failed to fulfil their duty to marry and bear children would be doomed to an eternity, "Serving the Apes in Hell". The meaning of this was to serve apes in the way that they had failed to service men. This is what the people of that time may have been imagining.

[cclaun]

Ride her through the streets

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[cclaun]

Apes in hell.

Here is a wood carving from an old church in England depicting this legend and tradition.

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Apes in hell.
3049437157_0e745fce5f_c.jpg
Here is a wood carving from an old church in England depicting this legend and tradition.

Authentic!!

[cclaun]

They are considered no better than a beast of burden. Harnessed to a plow and driven across the muddy field. The entire village turns out to jeer.

[cclaun]