Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Just for fun, what do you all think Lizzie would be doing on New Years eve and day? Let's really have some fun!! Let's include before the murders and after!

I think before the murders maybe spend time with family and friends, alcohol free of course. Maybe go to a church outing/event, something like that.

Maybe after the murders, she kicked up her heals a bit. Maybe have a big event, huge party or something.

What do you all think?

I'm given to snark (she spent the evening in her bedroom doing reps with the hatchet) but I can see both Lizzie and Emma visiting the houses of friends or even the Anthony yacht, well-chaperoned and no alcohol for the young women, where they sedately welcomed the New Year if the celebration of New Year had reached Fall River prior to the 1890s which it probably had not. Celebrating the New Year became popular around 1900 with the first Ball drop in Times Square in 1907. Later I could see Lizzie traveling to NYC to experience the midnight excitement and attend plays and concerts during the same visit. I doubt Emma went along...she would've celebrated quietly with friends after the murders.

I never thought of it like that. It does seem to be a more modern thing to celebrate the New Year. Ringing in the New Year I guess is a more of a 20th century thing.

Emma might have gone over the top in indulgence and had a glass of lemonade or non-alcoholic wine to celebrate the occasion. Lizzie could have met up with Nance O'Neil and her theatrical friends and had a bit of a party, with her handsome chauffeur driving her there and back!

Maybe New Years was the day Lizzie broke out the new bottle of Jack Daniels sippin' whiskey that would be hidden in the same spot under her bed as was the hatchet when it was in residence.

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If we are talking about Lizzie Borden, it would be brandy....Couvoisier, my dear, Couvoisier

mbhenty wrote:.



If we are talking about Lizzie Borden, it would be brandy....Couvoisier, my dear, Couvoisier

Lol...methinks the hatchetin' side of Lizzie would be sippin' Old Jack.....late at night so no one would ever know...

This subject kind of caught me flat footed. My first impression is that New Year's wasn't a big deal back then, as others have said.

That said, I think you're all wrong about Emma. Most like she'd sip a few medicinal glasses of elderberry or cherry cordial, or sherry or something, for her rheumatism of course.

As Lizzie was so mad on Scotland, ('My ain Country') I wonder whether she kept an old Scottish and North country custom called 'First footing'? At the stroke of midnight people open their back door to let the old year out. Then, for luck, a dark-haired man (must be dark, can be a relative or family friend) is welcomed through the front door. He carries a bit of bread, a lump of coal and some salt. This ensures that the household has sufficient to eat, heating and enough money in the year ahead. Many people in Scotland and the North of England still celebrate 'First footing'.

Ive just bought a book which deals with Britain's first year of war, 1914, in its entirety. Celebrating New Year was a 20th century phenomenon, and in Britain, in various parts of the country New Year's Eve 1913-14 seems to have been widely celebrated in smart hotels and restaurants in London and the larger cities. New York, Boston, Chicago etc was probably the same way. There were Tango displays and competitions (the new craze) at the stroke of midnight to accompanying bands.

In Manchester's Albert Square (and probably in Times Square) thousands of people gathered to sing ragtime songs and blow on hooters. There were fireworks in various places. In docklands ships sirens and fog horns blasted.

Just thinking how incredibly commercialized holidays have become (not at my house, however) and wondering when Hallmark was founded...1910.

Interesting, Debbie. I didn't know Hallmark was founded then (for some reason, I always thought it would have been in the 50's or so).

'First Footing" is an interesting custom, Curryong. For the dark man Lizzie could have used John Tetrault (Tatro). Then Emma would have had to sip the cordial!

Bread and salt is also a Russian tradition for welcoming people into a home.

Curryong...do you suppose Lizzie ever enjoyed haggis at a Burns Dinner?

I think she would probably have loved to go to one of those evenings, sample haggis and listen to Scottish poetry. I'm not sure whether unaccompanied (by a male) women were invited to these occasions or not, though, especially as drams of whisky would be a big part of the night.