A serious story about clapping!

It all started a long time ago, in the 1660's to be precise.

After the death of Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy was restored to King Charles II and it is because of this man and his 'discovery' that we clap today.

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As you should all know, in the days of old England there was a certain kind of eeriness. Peasants and noblemen alike were scared of witches and spirits, and tried many ways of warding them off. For years, new ways of scaring off these demons were tried and then failed; the people of England became more and more wary of the forces that were active around them. Many 'witches' were being tried and convicted and then drowned or burned at the stake.
In 1665 a great plague spread all around England; the people believed that the witches had cursed them. Red blotches were found on the skin and pus filled sacks under the armpits and in the groin. People carried fresh flowers with them to drown out the smell of rotting flesh. Thousands upon thousands of people died in a fit of sneezes. There was a mass clean up, and the familiar sound of 'bring out your dead' haunted the streets from the men employed to take bodies to a burial pit.

Ring a ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down

Order was not restored in England until a year later in 1666 when a great fire broke out and destroyed the areas most affected by the plague, some thought that this was an act of God, to rid them of the disease and death, but a few still believed that this was the work of the witches.
During the plague, King Charles II had left the city of London where he resided and moved to the country, where the threat of the plague was less common. He arrived back in London just before the great fire broke out, but this time he decided to stay and help his people. The king also believed that both the plague and the fire were the result of the witches, and he vowed that when he conquered the fire he would devise a way to protect his people from their evil.
Charles and his people combated the fire by knocking down all the buildings in its path and thus starving the fire of fuel. Eventually the fire died out and only five peoples lives had been taken. From then on, the people of England looked to their monarch with respect and vowed to help him find a way to stop the misfortune being experienced in their town and country.
At this time, the witch burnings were still happening, with one being put to death virtually every day. Charles liked to attend these burnings, so that he could gain more of an insight into these frightful beings and eventually find a way to prevail against them.
Now, it just so happened at one of these witch burning ceremonies, in 1680, Charles decided to meet one of these witches. He spoke to a woman who told him that her name was Mardred. She claimed that she was not a witch, but simply misunderstood. She spoke very quietly and seemed to be scared of the king. When Charles spoke to the courts about the evidence they had collected to confirm that she was a witch, he was told that Mardred was often caught talking to voices in her head ' which she claimed was the voice of the devil.
The king noticed that when he was speaking to Mardred, if he raised his voice too loud, the witch would back off and look scared. He decided that the spirits must be afraid of loud noise and started to clap his hands together to test his theory.
On hearing the clapping sound, the witch became very afraid and jumped into the river and drowned. Charles was very excited about this and spread the word that clapping and loud noises scare off evil spirits and witches.

From that moment on, if someone did well at something or there was a celebration, the people around them would clap their hands and shout and cheer to ward off evil.

As the word began to spread, the need to burn and drown witches came to a stop.

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The last witch was burned in 1782 in Switzerland

'Mardred the Witch's' body was discovered several years later, still mostly intact, preserved by the waters. Tests were run to determine her cause of death. Doctors discovered that Mardred had been suffering from schizophrenia and had an acute fear of loud noise. She wasn't a witch.

We now know that the great fire was actually started by Thomas Farriner (who happened to be the king's baker) and not the witches.

Charles was unable to save himself from the evil and passed away just five years after his 'discovery'. He died from a stoke.

'Clapping' still takes place today ' although most have forgotten the reasons why we do it.