Monday, July 19, 2021

Flitch?

 Today is National Flitch Day.  Not filch or flinch or fletch, it's Flitch Day.  This information was supplied by my west coast brother, no surprise there.  Do you know what a flitch is?  Well, neither did I so I asked my brother.  He informed me that a flitch is a side of bacon.  He also challenged me to look up the Flitch Trials of Great Dunmow.  These Flitch Trials have been going on every four years since the time of Chaucer, in, you guessed it, the city of Great Dunmow in Essex, England.  When I learned what flitch is and then learned that there are flitch trials, especially trials dating from Medieval times, I envisioned something like burley, scantily clad men (it's more fun if they're scantily clad) slapping each other with bacon strips (whole sides of bacon seems too brutal), but that's not it at all.  To win the flitch, a married couple has to convince a panel of 12 judges (six bachelors and six maidens) that they have not ever wished themselves unmarried during the past twelve months and a day.  Not once in 12 months?  Sounds like a challenge to me.  


 

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