our modern world is full of things to do consume and experience to provide us with effortless entertainment and joy it is ironic that today we have so many options but so little time but in the bygone days of the Victorian era people had a lot of time on their hands but not a lot to do with it we have the internet these days and victorians had to rely heavily on their imaginations and when one is Victorian their imaginations tend to lean towards a grim creepy and overall stranger side why were victorians holding funerals for dolls
why did they eat their lunches while sitting on tombstones and what exactly was punching Judy welcome to nutty history and today let's find out what creepy Hobbies kept victorians busy viewer discretion is advised for this video as some of this video may be offensive or disturbing we the makers of this video in no way support or condone the actions of the subjects featured [Music] behind the iron rot walls of cemeteries the deceased go to rest in peace forever but when the living is overtly fascinated with death it could get difficult to find peace in your
final resting place the Victorian era's Gothic kick for all things related to death is well known and we have explained it in many of our videos so when victorians look for places to hang out once again death triumphed over all the options they could think of now they didn't have theme parks like Disney World back then but when death is the theme of a historical period why create fake cemeteries when there are perfectly good real ones does that make cemeteries the Disney World of that era in a spiritual sense cemeteries could be considered the grandfather
of all modern theme parks victorians clearly had no issues bothering the dead almost every lovely afternoon to attend luncheons in places like Woodland Cemetery Dayton Ohio or St Paul's churchyard in lower Manhattan as they enjoyed socializing and feasting on fruits gingersnaps and beef sandwiches this may make victorians look like they were utterly disrespectful of the disease but having a fun day at the cemetery didn't become a fad without a reason one of the reasons victorians loved everything Gothic was their constant brush up with the Grim Reaper now and often diseases like cholera and yellow fever
were rampant back then cholera alone claimed well over 14 000 lives and yet a fever claimed almost 150 000 lives the mortality rate for adolescence was abysmal women hardly survived pregnancies and then heinous criminals committed atrocities without being caught and history today remembers them as urban legends in short for victorians families gathered more often to more than Mary as cemeteries were the most likely destinations for The Departed families would often like to visit those who they lost to soon and slowly such Gatherings became a fashion for its time period people were breaking bread and enjoying
their day with their living and non-living family members as more and more crowds pulled in cemeteries stopped looking like quiet desolate land of the long departed but became Gothic theme parks for people to socialize unlike Church graveyards that shouted Memento Mori in the faces of their visitors the new cemeteries were built outside City centers and the garden-like flowering designs helped normalize hanging with the Dead our motifs replace skulls and crossbones and the public was welcome to enjoy the grounds it is easy to assume that true crime shows like Forensic Files and CSI along with hundreds
of YouTube channels retelling the stories of tragic events happening to innocent people due to the actions of malicious people is a modern phenomenon there are many people today who consume shows in video series based on true crime like they breathe oxygen some do without curiosity some do it to learn and be cautious while some get a kick out of them as well but shockingly this is not a Modern Trend we don't have to say it one more time but victorians love death and if you throw a mystery of whodunit in a mix one would have
victorians chasing the resolve like a cat chasing a laser dot the victorians found an odd sleuthing measure in buying and then solving tiny earthenware figures of famous crime sites of their time the scenes of grisly delinquencies like Red Barn were immensely popular and allow people to fulfill their fantasy of sleuthing in the likeness of Sherlock Holmes and other such characters of the era solving these malfeasance memorabilia and celebrating the tragedies of victims within the comfort of their homes gave victorians the same level of dopamine that we get by playing video games these days these crime
reproductions and solving kids would come with commemorative mugs bearing to criminal space which would be the reward for solving the mystery so victorians were not just creating their own medium of CSI dramas but they were also merchandising it Halloween was the time for victorians to fully Embrace their goth Mystic site and the games adults played in Social Gatherings back then resonated with the creepiness and risky side of the holiday the women especially single ones had a lot of games focused around their future where they hoped to be married as marriage was an important Milestone of
a fulfilling life back then of course who would marry who was the most popular topic for gossip one such game involved the pouring of melted lead through a key into a bowl of water and analyzing the shapes for a hands of their future husband's occupation it was like reading tea leaves but with a toxic element exposure to lead fumes which particularly was unavoidable during such a game may cause anemia weakness and kidney and brain damage very high lead exposure can even lead to death other games were just weird the game marriages and divorces could be
construed as a predecessor for Speed Dating where the girls would line up on one side of the room and the boys would line up on the other the person standing in front of you would be your partner and on the spot you'd have to write a character sketch and perform a roast of your partner which would not just be about their flaws but also good traits after judging each other brutally the couple would then be openly ridiculed by the judge of the game who would decide whether the couple should stay married or divorce each other
if a couple asked to be divorced despite the judge's opinion that they were suitable there was a penalty the two players had to pay a forfeit now I'm not gonna lie this kind of game sounds like a scam [Music] one of the many ways Victorian times are still very much part of the present Western culture and way of living is the children's games that were either invented in Victorian times or were inspired by victorians take your dollhouse dress-ups tea party wedding or funeral yeah funeral this particular game may have fallen out of favor in modern
times but back in Victorian times parents wouldn't worry if they found their little girls holding Memorial services for their dolls today if parents would find their kids preparing coffins for their dolls or Miniatures they would likely seek the help of a psychiatrist or a religious mentor to find out what is wrong with their kids but for victorians watching their kids officiating lash rights for their toys was a moment of Pride playing funeral was common across the mid to late 1800s Charles Dickens also mentioned it in a very dark context in his 1840 novels the old
curiosity shop when his protagonist now stumbles across a group of children in a graveyard playing a funeral with a very realistic doll but speaking of dolls the fascination for dolls was as common among Victorian children as it has been for any other generation until electronic devices became a thing I mean seriously do any parents buy dolls anymore these days Victorian kids love to cuddle with their dolls take them on outings organize tea parties with them and use them as devices of their make-believe worlds they didn't care how creepy Victorian dolls were these dolls used to
come with many accessories just like modern Barbie but one of these accessories was as Victorian as it could get a tiny black morning dress and a tiny coffin oh isn't that fun if you're a fan of the new thriller movie Bullet Train there's a good chance you remember the moment when the twins exclaimed the old Punch and Judy yeah now you may be left scratching your head trying to get the reference that's because you're not British and more importantly you're not Victorian in the movie the reference is followed by Lemon puppeteering the deceased to make
it look alive for The Observers that is perhaps the best way to honor the oldest form of action and creepiest puppet entertainment in Britain victorians didn't just love death but surprisingly they also liked it grizzling and horrid it may come as a culture shock but one of the most popular forms of Children's Entertainment in Victorian England was a puppet show called Punch and Judy that revolved around a disturbed vigilante named Mr punch the level of atrocities in what was supposed to be a children's show was the equivalent of if Quentin Tarantino directed a Tom and
Jerry episode something that would put criminals like Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Manson to shame Pontius crimes in the shows range from mindless termination of London citizens lawmen that may attempt to arrest him Etc just because they were annoying him the puppet show has continued to this day in some parts of England but does not match the intensity and aggression of the Victorian era tell us in the comments which of these activities sounds most appealing to you thanks for watching nutty history and if you enjoyed the video do not forget to like And subscribe [Music]
