MEDIVIAL FESTIVALS

FORMAL FESTIVALS

• Mid summers or St. John's Day (June 24)
• Hocktide (end of the Easter week)
• Candlemas (February 2)
• Christmas (Jesus's birthday)
• Easter (Jesus's resurrection day)

ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE POOR

• Poor people usually had lots of activities that involved some sort of prize.
• There were many more outdoor activities with the poor than with the rich
• Some of these activities included archery, golf, hammer throw, horseshoes
• wrestling, and stoolball which is a ancestor sport of cricket.
• There was usually lots of different types of food available but not lots of meat

INDOOR ACTIVITIES

• Not all the activities in the festivals were outdoors their were many
• Indoor activities which included chess, knuckle bones which was an
• Early game of dice. Backgammon, Hazard which is the ancestor of
• Craps. And many strategy board games such as checkers, Fox and Geese
• The Philosophers game and Alquerques.

ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE RICH

• People who where wealthy enough to attend the more expensive festivals
• Were often treated to entertainment such as jousting and knight battles.
• After the entertainment they were treated to bountiful bouquets with
• Different types of meat were served to royalties because they thought
• Vegetables and greens were considered peasant food and were below

THE ENTERTAINERS AT THE RICH FESTIVALS

• Jesters which usually were called fools or buffoons.
• Mummers which were masked or costumed dancers.
• There were acrobats and jugglers.
• Troubadours which were singers and musically talented people.
• Fire eaters which did a variety of dangerous stunts with fire.

TOURNAMENTS

• Along with festivals tournaments were when knights would gather to test
• Their chivalry and honor. In the tournament the swords and lances
• We're blunted so they couldn't deliver any fatal blow unless they
• We're really trying to kill them. Then they would break their necks
• This resulted in a foul. Winners took the losers horse and armor.

PREPARING FOR THE FESTIVAL

• Lots of preparation went into the feasts of the festivals alone first the
• Official throwing the festivals would have to by many different varieties of food.
• Second there was much cooking and cleaning for the feast. Medieval feasts
• consisted of five to six courses of food. The main courses sometimes imitated theatrical representation
• Desserts were very special and were placed at the center of the table on a pedastle.

MEDIEVAL FESTIVALS TODAY!!!

• Medievial festivals are still around today these festivals are called
• Renaissance festivals. At these festivals normal people like you and me
• Turn weird for a day and become brave knights and fair maidens.
• At these people pay money to relive the experience of the Black Plague
• Times over again and remember what life before toilet paper was like.

WORKS CITED

• Satochi, Noguchi. "Daily life in Mediavial Times." . N.p., 2009. Web. 22 Oct 2013. .
• "Entertainment in the middle ages." Lords and ladies. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct 2013. .
• "Medieval festivals." Mediaviallife.net. N.p., 2000. Web. 22 Oct 2013. .
• Religious Festivals." Medieval life and times. N.p., 2010. Web. 22 Oct 2013.
• "Medieval Feast." . N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct 2013.