where does the phrase "going to hell in a handbasket" come from?

Answer 1

According to World Wide Words (origins):

This is a weird one. It’s a fairly common American expression, known for much of the twentieth century. But it’s one about which almost no information exists, at least in the two dozen or so reference books I’ve consulted. William and Mary Morris, in their Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, confess to the same difficulty. A handbasket is just a basket to be carried in the hand (my thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary for that gem of definition). The Dictionary of American Regional English records to go to heaven in a handbasket rather earlier than the alternative, which doesn’t appear in print until the 1940s (Walt Quader tells me that Burton Stevenson included a citation in his Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases from Bayard Kendrick’s The Odor of Violets, published in 1941). But DARE quotes a related expression from 1714: “A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it”, which suggests that it, or at least phrases like it, have been around in the spoken language for a long time. For example, there’s an even older expression, to go to heaven in a wheelbarrow, recorded as early as 1629, which also meant “to go to hell”. I can only assume that the alliteration of the hs has had a lot to do with the success of the various phrases, and that perhaps handbasket suggests something easily and speedily done.

Answer 2

I suspect it comes from the time when people thought Hell was real. There is plenty of evidence that people believed in all sorts of gods and hells for millenia. Phrases do enter common vocabulary and stick there - I recently listened to an interesting programme which explained how many metaphors in Britain come from the Navy - I have used loads of them and never been a sailor.

Answer 3

I saw this explanation:

"There seems to be no known source of this phrase, which originated around the turn of the 20th century. Speculation, but it may go like this: the handbasket is a reference to a wheelchair which used to be made of wickerwork. To be rendered disabled and sent to hell would be a sort of oath along the lines of the more recent 'eat sh*it and die'."

Answer 4

From my sweet Aries Mom in the 60s....old expression

Answer 5

Never heard of that saying

Answer 6

little red riding hood

Answer 7

i don`t know but sounds cool

Answer 8

My guess is the South.

Answer 9

tv and movies

Answer 10

jeffery dahlmer?