What is the origination of the term ‘Going to Hell in a handbasket’?
Basically, it sounds good because of the alliteration. Here are links to The Word Mavens’ article and The Word Detective’s article on the phrase.
I can understand that explanation, but I wonder why we (or at least several of my friends) say “Christ in a hand basket!” as an exclamation of surprise?
My WAG is that it’s just a random phrase that sounds ridiculous, but it would be nice if there were a story behind it. Anyone?
Fran
Helena Hans-Beckett ran a brothel in Glouster MA during the 1820s. The house became famous when a mayoral candidate in Boston was run out of town after allegations arose that his entire campaign staff went to it.
And as Duke Ellington said, “If it sounds good, it is good.”
I should let this end with DrFidelius’ story. But…
…since you asked-in 1928 we get Christ on a raft, 1942, Christ on a crutch, 1947-Kee-rist-on-a-bicycle and finally in 1962, Christ in a basket.
I think that writers just got a bit looser starting around WWI and things just went to hell in a handbasket since that time.
My history teacher claimed that the term originated from the 1860’s railroad construction boom. Then, it was not an uncommon practice to lower Chinese laborers in baskets to place dynamite in precarious places:
…The Chinese workers e.g., Ah Goong, were usually small and skinny so they could easily go down on a basket to put dynamite to blow it. After they put the dynamite, they had to get back up in a hurry of they might be blown into pieces…
Thus “Blown to Hell in a handbasket”.
Ask you teacher for a cite in print for “blown” to Hell in a handbasket. The term handbasket as used in any form of the phrase comes from this century and almost certainly has a non-literal origin.
No, no - you’ve got it all wrong. According to the Big Book of Shambolics, the phrase originated in New Orleans and referred to a fashionable restaurant in the French Quarter. In the Roaring Twenties, the eatery became The Place to be Seen for the daring young things of the city, and before long, everyone was bragging, “We’re going to Helene’s for a ham biscuit!”
Of course, with the fat content of Helene’s cooking, it was really their diets that went to hell.