So why did the moon and stars theory become so prevalent? Well, it might have something to do with the obsession America had with cowboys during the middle of the 20th century. Media portrayals of moons on outhouses in movies, TV, or offered as charming bits of folklore in local newspapers, could have planted this myth quite easily in a era when anything Old West was taken in with great interest.
Whatever the case, we certainly associate crescent moons with outhouses today , despite the dwindling numbers of these antiquated toilets outside of frontier style tourist traps and ghost towns. For those fascinated by the subject, it may intrigue you know that there are even collectors who lovingly rescue old outhouses from the landfill!
It is basically two triangles put together, indicating that a particular outhouse is unisex. The story of the origins of the crescent moon symbol on the doors of the outhouse is not as clear. This is actually not true, because one outhouse was always meant to serve the entire family. In actual reality, the crescent moon cutout became a popular decoration for outhouses only in the middle of the 20th century.
And the most likely reason is old comics and Hollywood movies. Creators of these black and white pieces had to come up with a way to mark the outhouse to differentiate it from other gray buildings. A little crescent moon was probably used before, but cinema definitely made it more popular. So much so that people believe this to be an old tradition, while actually it dates just back to the 20th century. Why the moon? You connect the dots. Heart-shaped cutouts, very common in Europe, especially in Scandinavia, have equally blurry origins.
Some believe that a little heart was just more inviting and made this rather smelly, but necessary building a bit more cosy and inviting. Again, once this symbol appeared in some movies it became more popular. Not surprisingly, some people believe that there is a connection with a butt as well, heart shape being an upside down bottom.
Of course, as you might expect, descriptions of outhouses and photographs and the like are relatively rare, and surviving examples even more so. This 18th century outhouse is helpfully made of stone so has survived the centuries, but no such cutout or symbology is present anywhere on it, door or otherwise. Or as Dr. Historically outhouses did frequently feature openings in the rafters for ventilation and light purposes. Some even had cutouts in the doors, but often diamond, V, or heart shaped or some speculate on this one originally intended to be more bottom shaped as it would look hanging over the hole.
These door cutouts were also seemingly for ventilation and light purposes and also sometimes thought to function as the door handle of sorts. The door, as faced from the outside, had its hinges left, and no knob or pull. It permitted light, ventilation and easy opening. I suggest that this simple expedient came to have some traditional force, and once hardware became available, was still felt to be useful or attractive, and was displaced to the center of the door, to break up the flat plane….
For that, let us offer our own little hypothesis. While nobody knows for sure, because the crescent moon trope seems to have originated not on real outhouses, but rather in various comics and other humor based media around the midth century in the United States, perhaps it may have been referencing the practice of dropping your drawers hanging your butt over something- aka mooning someone.
Before we get into that, going back a couple thousand years, we have the first known reference of someone disrespecting someone else via mooning them.
This was documented by Flavius Josephus in 80 AD in his The Jewish War, where he records an event that apparently took place near the Temple in Jerusalem a few decades earlier,.
At this the whole multitude had indignation, and made a clamor to Cumanus, that he would punish the soldier; while the rasher part of the youth, and such as were naturally the most tumultuous, fell to fighting, and caught up stones, and threw them at the soldiers. Upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all the people should make an assault upon him, and sent to call for more armed men, who, when they came in great numbers into the cloisters, the Jews were in a very great consternation; and being beaten out of the temple, they ran into the city; and the violence with which they crowded to get out was so great, that they trod upon each other, and squeezed one another, till ten thousand of them were killed, insomuch that this feast became the cause of mourning to the whole nation, and every family lamented their own relations.
Moving swiftly on, as to the association with the moon and mooning someone, this goes back at least to the 18th century in England. Whatever the case, to sum up, in outhouses that did have cutouts in the doors historically, it would appear these were generally for ventilation and illumination purposes and to function as a door handle when placed on the door.
Contrary to what is popularly reported, the crescent-moon cutout does not seem to have been a thing historically, and rather seems to be a media-generated, or at least, popularized, invention. Yes, they are. Neither are even vaguely representative of a butt, In my opinion the crescent moon is much less so than a full moon, the heart shape is much closer.
Literally not everyone literally asks this literal question. Dear millennials, for literally the love of god, please literally stop saying literally. Language evolves. This is one way it has. Again, language never stops changing. The purpose of a common language is a shared understanding of what words mean, indeed language is in a constant flux,I have a year old English dictionary,some wonderful words in there all archaic now,I feel that we are poorer for that.
I would love to see a dictionary from that time!
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