Emily's Hospitality

Talking about hospitality this week,  made me think of Emily Post and what she taught the past generations in the "Art of Hospitality", so I googled her and enjoyed reading about her, and reading her suggestions. I included the little biography of her here, and also a list of "10 Rules of Hospitality" that she wrote.  

Hospitality

dictionary.reference.com/browse/hospitality

Hospitality definition, the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.

It is an elemental part of being a Christian isn't it?  It is a part of the way we show love.

Emily Post/Biography

• Born: 27 October 1872
• Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
• Died: 25 September 1960
• Best Known As: Mid-20th century American expert on etiquette

Name at birth: Emily Price
Emily Post was an American writer and socialite who became the nation's most famous authority on how to behave graciously in society and business. Early in her career she wrote society columns and travelogues of pre-World War I Europe. Post published her first novel in 1904 and had a bestselling non-fiction book in 1909, but it was her 1922 book, Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (also Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home) that made her career. The success of the book led to a radio show and a syndicated newspaper column, and in 1946 she founded the Emily Post Institute for the Study of Gracious Living. By the time Post died in 1960, her book on etiquette had been revised many times and was in its 89th printing. The institute and the brand name continued after her death, directed first by Elizabeth Lindley Post, then by Peggy Grayson Post.


Many sources give Post's birth year as 1873; the Emily Post Institute site says 1872... Modern versions of Emily Post include Judith "Miss Manners" Martin and Martha Stewart.




Ten Rules of Hospitality
by Emily Post

1. "Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory."
2. "Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor."
3. "The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy and Serenity."
4. "Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use."
5. "To the old saying that man built the house but woman made of it a "home" might be added the modern supplement that woman accepted cooking as a chore but man has made of it a recreation."
6. "The good guest is almost invisible, enjoying him or herself, communing with fellow guests, and, most of all, enjoying the generous hospitality of the hosts."
7. "She must not swing her arms as though they were dangling ropes; she must not switch herself this way and that; she must not shout; and she must not, while wearing her bridal veil, smoke a cigarette."
8. "Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them."
9. "The most vulgar slang is scarcely worse than the attempted elegance which those unused to good society imagine to be the evidence of cultivation."
10. "Any child can be taught to be beautifully behaved with no effort greater than quiet patience and perseverance, whereas to break bad habits once they are acquired is a Herculean task."