4 January: Doors

On this date in 1967 The Doors released their self-titled debut album The Doors. 10 things you might not know about doors:

1. The oldest door in the world was discovered in Zurich, Switzerland during excavations around the town hall. The door is estimated to be five thousand years old and measures 153cm (5ft) high and is 88cm wide.

2. The oldest door in the UK is 900 years old and can be found in Westminster Abbey. The oak door was built built during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042 – 1066).

3. The largest door in the world is in Florida, USA. This one dates back to 1965 and is located at the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre. These doors are 465 feet high and take 45 minutes to open and close.

4. The largest moving object in the average home is the garage door.

5. It’s highly likely all the doors in your home open inwards. This isn’t accidental, it’s all for various safety reasons. If a door opens outwards, the hinges would have to be outside, where they would be relatively easily removed by burglars. Also, a door opening outwards, especially directly onto a pavement, could hit a passer by in the face. In places where there is a lot of Snow, the doors need to open inward so people don’t get trapped in their houses. That said, the front doors of public buildings do open outwards because that makes it easier for large numbers of people to get out quickly if there’s a Fire.

6. There is a village in India where none of the buildings have doors. It’s called Shingnapur and there are no doors or locks there because the inhabitants believe they are protected by Shani, the god of Saturn, who once appeared in a dream to the village chief, asking that a slab of rock be erected in his honour and that he would dwell in the village henceforth and protect it. Once the slab was in place, the people believed they no longer needed doors because their god was protecting them and removed them all.

7. The Romans had a god of doorways, Janus, for whom the month of January was named. When the Romans built a new building there would be a ceremony inviting Janus and his entourage in, and making them welcome.

8. Front doors in some towns in Ireland are very colourful. This began on the death of Queen Victoria when people were ordered to paint their front doors Black for mourning. People in Ireland painted their doors bright colours instead as an act of rebellion.

9. Sometimes, when space is at a premium, there are sliding doors, which move along a track fixed to the wall. There are even doors which slide inside a cavity in the wall (such as the drawing room door at Tyntesfield). The latter are called pocket doors.

10. Dreaming about a door means there is a new opening in your waking life. Dreaming of a locked door represents a missed opportunity.