Who doesn't love a good festival. Medieval festivals were not mere parties, BBQs or even whole day celebrations such as weddings. These were week long extravaganzas that brought people from far and wide!
Medieval celebrations centered around specific feast days that had pagan origins and were based on ancient agrarian celebrations that marked when certain crops should be planted or harvested.
Wheat and rye were sown from Michaelmas (September 29) to Christmas. Spring crops would be planted from the end of Christmas through to Easter. Christmas, Easter and Pentecost would be celebrated with a feast of the Church. They were followed by a week of vacation. Visions of an Oktoberfest style celebration springs to mind but on a much larger scale.
There were many lesser celebrations as well such as:
- Candlemas (February 2),
- Hocktide (end of the Easter week),
- Mayday,
- the Rogation Days,
- Ascension (all in May),
- Midsummer or St. John's Day (June 24),
- the Lammas or Feast of St. Peter
These would all be marked with feasts and unique celebrations. Michaelmas marked the beginning of winter and the start of the fiscal year for merchants and tradesmen.
By November, feed was often too scarce to keep animals through the winter, and became known as the "blood month" when meat was smoked, salted and cured for consumption during the long winter ahead. The month began with All Hallows (later, All Saints) Day, followed by St. Martin's Day (November 11).
But medieval society awaited the dreariest time of the year to celebrate the grandest feast of all. The two-week period from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Day (January 6) transformed into the longest vacation for workers. The Lords of the manor or castle often gave bonuses of food, clothing, drink and firewood to ye olde servants. Houses were decked with holly and ivy (there's a song in there), and giant Yule logs were brought in and burned throughout the two-week celebration. New Year's took place during this time and added to the festivities, and "First Gifts" were often exchanged on this day.
"Plow Monday" took place the day after Epiphany, and freemen of the village would participate in a plow race, to begin cultivation of the town's common plot of land. Each man would try and furrow as many lines as possible, as he would be able to sow those lines during the coming year. Children would play the role of "Fool Plow" and go from house to house asking for pennies. Those who refused would find the ground in front of their door plowed up.
Easter, as Christmas, was a day for exchanging gifts. The castle lord would receive eggs from the villagers and in return, provide servants with dinner. May saw celebrations of love, especially on the 1st. Villagers would venture into the woods to cut wildflowers and other greenery for their homes to usher in May and hope for a fertile season.
Original and further information can be found here.
Bring back a life of festivities, common purpose and mutual exertion I say... especially if it also heralds the end of commercial corporate mass manufactured entertainment!
Hear Hear!
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