Post by M. Hawbaker on Jun 27, 2022 18:47:37 GMT
In honor of the Independence Day, I want to talk about a pressing question I had as a child pertaining to one of our most popular patriotic songs “Yankee Doodle”.
We all know the first verse.
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
The question is why did he call a feather in his cap “macaroni”?
Macaroni does not refer to the tasty cheesy pasta dish that we all love and know. It refers to an elaborate short-lived fashion trend in England at the end of the 18th century. The trend started with upper-class youths who returned from their Grand Tours of mainland Europe with a great appreciation for continental style and taste. They brought back the luxurious fabrics of the French as well as the pasta dishes of the Italians, thus macaroni was used to refer to the fashion trend.
The macaroni style consisted of a tight-sleeved coat with short skirts, waistcoat and knee breeches. Macaroni emphasized pastel color, patterns and ornamentation like brocaded or embroidered silks and velvet. On their head, they wore tall wigs with a rising front and “club” of hair behind that required an extensive amount of pomade and powder. This wig was usually garnished with a large black satin wig-bag trimmed with bow. The feet were clad in red-heeled slipper-like leather shoes with decorative buckles of diamond, paste or polished steel. Additionally, as much ornamentation as possible was added with large floral nosegays, hanging watches, swords and tasseled walking sticks.To be “macaroni” was to be sophisticated, upper class, and worldly. An elite figure marked by the cultivations of European travel, wealth and taste.
So what did the British troops, who first sang the song about their colonial cousins, mean when they said that Mr. Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni?
The song was not meant to be a compliment but rather a joke. A “Yankee Doodle” was a simpleton who thought that just putting a feather in his hat would make him macaroni or fashionable when, in reality, he was just a country bumpkin. He lacked class, could never mingle in high society, and was too simple to even realize it.
What seems like just a silly sounding verse in a marching tune actually illustrates how the British viewed and had always viewed the colonies. They looked down on the overseas colonies; after all if it wasn’t for the support of the Crown the initial colonial settlements might not have survived. They felt that the American colonists owed them a great deal for protection, for purveying their culture, for providing them with manufactured goods.
So, if the British were insulting Americans in “Yankee Doodle”, why is it such a common American patriotic song now? Why would Connecticut even make it their state anthem?
As is often the case with insults leveled at a supposed inferiors by people who sees themselves as superior, the colonists appropriated the negative image of a Yankee Doodle and gave it a positive meaning. No longer was this motley “macaroni” viewed as a garish fool but rather became a symbol of a homespun American identity.
livesandlegaciesblog.org/2018/07/04/why-did-yankee-doodle-call-a-feather-macaroni/#:~:text=Yankee%20Doodle%20stuck%20a%20feather,was%20just%20a%20country%20bumpkin.
We all know the first verse.
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
The question is why did he call a feather in his cap “macaroni”?
Macaroni does not refer to the tasty cheesy pasta dish that we all love and know. It refers to an elaborate short-lived fashion trend in England at the end of the 18th century. The trend started with upper-class youths who returned from their Grand Tours of mainland Europe with a great appreciation for continental style and taste. They brought back the luxurious fabrics of the French as well as the pasta dishes of the Italians, thus macaroni was used to refer to the fashion trend.
The macaroni style consisted of a tight-sleeved coat with short skirts, waistcoat and knee breeches. Macaroni emphasized pastel color, patterns and ornamentation like brocaded or embroidered silks and velvet. On their head, they wore tall wigs with a rising front and “club” of hair behind that required an extensive amount of pomade and powder. This wig was usually garnished with a large black satin wig-bag trimmed with bow. The feet were clad in red-heeled slipper-like leather shoes with decorative buckles of diamond, paste or polished steel. Additionally, as much ornamentation as possible was added with large floral nosegays, hanging watches, swords and tasseled walking sticks.To be “macaroni” was to be sophisticated, upper class, and worldly. An elite figure marked by the cultivations of European travel, wealth and taste.
So what did the British troops, who first sang the song about their colonial cousins, mean when they said that Mr. Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni?
The song was not meant to be a compliment but rather a joke. A “Yankee Doodle” was a simpleton who thought that just putting a feather in his hat would make him macaroni or fashionable when, in reality, he was just a country bumpkin. He lacked class, could never mingle in high society, and was too simple to even realize it.
What seems like just a silly sounding verse in a marching tune actually illustrates how the British viewed and had always viewed the colonies. They looked down on the overseas colonies; after all if it wasn’t for the support of the Crown the initial colonial settlements might not have survived. They felt that the American colonists owed them a great deal for protection, for purveying their culture, for providing them with manufactured goods.
So, if the British were insulting Americans in “Yankee Doodle”, why is it such a common American patriotic song now? Why would Connecticut even make it their state anthem?
As is often the case with insults leveled at a supposed inferiors by people who sees themselves as superior, the colonists appropriated the negative image of a Yankee Doodle and gave it a positive meaning. No longer was this motley “macaroni” viewed as a garish fool but rather became a symbol of a homespun American identity.
livesandlegaciesblog.org/2018/07/04/why-did-yankee-doodle-call-a-feather-macaroni/#:~:text=Yankee%20Doodle%20stuck%20a%20feather,was%20just%20a%20country%20bumpkin.
