How often did the people in the old times change their clothing?

Answer 1

If you were poor, you may not have had a change of clothing. A friend of mine was a missionary and told of one of his first meetings "in the bush" (away from the major cities) and there was this man that walked into the middle of the crowd and sat down--he was completely naked except for a hat. Once down, he took off his hat, and pulled out his clothes to put on there in the crowd. The clothes were precious.

In the Bible there are a couple of things that illustrate this feature in that day and age. In Luke 9:3, Jesus was giving instruction for his disciples who were being sent out, "And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece." It is commonly thought that the reason for the the "neither have two coats apiece" was to say don't be pretentious by having more clothing than some of the poor people they were about to see.

Another place was John 21:7. This was after the resurrection of Jesus, but before the disciples had a chance to see him. With uncertainty as to what to do, Peter fell back on what he did before Jesus called him, Peter went fishing.

Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.

Here was a case like that of the African man I spoke of earlier. Peter had clothes, he had work clothes, but the fisherman's coat was more an apron to protect him from the nets and ropes but not the kind of clothes you wore in polite company when others were around.

As a child I remember noticing a picture in a magazine that was also used elsewhere to illustrate Ghana when it was still called Gold Coast. It captured several men in a wooden boat straining at their oars to get past the breakers of the waves upon their shore in order to go to a ship anchored a short distance away. There was one, perhaps two, my memory is fuzzy and I didn't find the picture in an online search, of the men paddling the boat were naked. The clothes were simply too expensive to risk damage during the course of their work, and while at work, modesty was a non-issue.

In Plutarch's Cimon, the rich and generous man provided food and money to those less fortunate, and even clothes: "he always went attended by two or three young companions, very well clad; and if he met with an elderly citizen in a poor habit, one of these would change clothes with the decayed citizen" (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/cimon.html, told again in http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/pericles.html). Again, clothing was not something a poor man had in plenty.

Note what Plutarch reported of Solon, the great Greek lawgiver: "In all other marriages he forbade dowries to be given; the wife was to have three suits of clothes, a little inconsiderable household stuff, and that was all; for he would not have marriages contracted for gain or an estate, but for pure love, kind affection, and birth of children." (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/solon.html). Anything above "three suits of clothes" was an obscene extravagance.

Plutarch's story of Sylla describes the punishing quartering that was imposed, wherein Roman soldiers would be given a place in opulent homes along with such benefits as this: "a centurion should receive fifty drachms a day, together with one suit of clothes to wear within doors, and another when he went abroad." (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/sylla.html)

The essential story is that sometimes there weren't clothes to change into, and if there was having too many clothes was seen as pretentious. Still, as the last case describes, there may have been public clothes and private clothes, as in what one wore at home. In that case, they changed every day when they left home and when they returned.

Answer 2

This is totally normal, I also babysit a little girl, and she does the same thing, you just have to be strict, if she spills, just pretend to do some magic trick and say something along the lines of... " Magical Magial Unicorns Princess, Make this Spot Dissappear in an Instant" and say that and she will most likley decide to keep whatever she is wearing on, but that will mostlikely work if it gets wet or what-not, so if she just wants to change, like I said be strict, hope I helped!

Answer 3

Not as often as we do today. In the past, events like the Black Plague devastated Europe due to lack of overall correct Health knowledge and a much poorer standard of living.

Answer 4

Do you mean like before there were washing machines?
Probably not very often. I'm sure they washed their under ware out by hand every day. I can't imagine how they did it.
good question.
i hope someone on here know the true answer.

Answer 5

i don't know.