Handbasket

Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?

We're going to Hell in a handbasket.

After a little while she brought them in a handbasket, cooked and ready served for him.

I have always wondered how the world, which is very large, can fit into something as small as a handbasket. To deepen my confusion, I’m not even sure I know what a handbasket is. Aren’t all baskets in fact handbaskets, and if they are, isn’t the prefix hand wholly unnecessary? We should probably say: “The world is going to hell in a basket,” although that sounds even worse, doesn’t it?