Showing posts with label Renaissance. Show all posts

Saturday, May 2, 2015

It must be Saturday!!!! Medieval style

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joris_Hoefnagel_Fete_at_Bermondsey_c_1569.png

A big day out everyone is dressed in their finest garb

Do not let your ears show!

It is good to be king!

A little after dinner entertainment with punch and Judi

Watch out you will poke your eye out kid!

Ok time for Dessert after all that fun!

Entertainment in the middle ages

Entertainment in the Middle Ages Click this link for source

Life in the middle ages was not all hard work! Even the loneliest or poorest peasant could take part in church festivals, join a marriage or funeral procession, or watch and listen to travelling poets, musicians, acrobats and dancers. Perhaps the village would be visited by a troupe leading a performing bear or dancing monkey. We would consider this sort of "entertainment" as cruel nowadays but in the middle ages it was quality entertainment.

Fun and games were often centred around particular times of year. At christmas, groups of villagers would dress up as "mummers" and visit the lord's home. There they would sing and perform some sketches in return for special christmas food and perhaps some money. On May day, young men and girls would get up early in the morning and play games in the bright spring sunlight, before gathering green branches to decorate their homes.

There were other festivals related to the seasons and to the agricultural year. Many of these had survived from pre-Christian times and were frowned on by the church, which was however powerless to stop them. At Midsummer for instance the villagers would light bonfires and hold various sports and games. People thought that by lighting a fire when the sun was at it's strongest, they would make sure it returned to ripen their crops the following year.

The Church also frowned upon the medieval tournament as they felt too much blood was spilled during the action this type of contest though proved highly popular with the people of the middle ages. The tournament probably started life as training for the knights in preparation for war but they soon became a great source of entertainment. Defeated knights had to give up their horse and their armour so a good fighter could make a fortune at the tournament. At first battle armour and sharp weapons were used but in the 13th century blunt weapons were introduced. Other contests such as jousts and archery were added later. In the pas d'armes, popular in the 15th century, one or more contestants held the tournament ground and sent challenges to other knights and squires. In the 17th century the tournament was replaced in most countries with displays of horsemanship called carousels.

Medieval Games and Pasttimes

Shared from this great site Castle Life ***

Medieval Games & Pastimes

Chess was widely popular and often a source of gambling entertainment; both in the traditional format and in a simpler version played with dice. Dice were easy to carry and were played in all ranks of society, including the clergy.

Some games played during the Middle Ages are still played today, including bowling, prisoner's base, blind man's bluff (also called hoodman's blind), and simple "horseplay". Draughts (checkers) were a popular pastime, as was backgammon. Children wrestled, swam, fished and played a game that was a cross between tennis and handball.

Medieval knights would incorporate training in recreation, performing gymnastics, running foot races, and tilting at quintains - devices designed so that unless the knight hit it squarely with his lance a heavy sack of sand would hit him in the back.

Spectators in the Middle Ages went to cockfights and bullbaiting.

At harvest time, villagers would bob for apples and go on hunts in the surrounding forests. Hawks were trained to hunt game birds and every medieval castle had a falconer, assigned to train young birds for this sport.

Medieval Christmas games included "King of the Bean," where a small bean would be baked inside bread or cake, and the one who found it in their portion would be crowned king of the holiday feast - a tradition that survives in some parts of Europe to this day.

http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Brueghel/imgmap.html

Activity / Sports Games

Bocce: a form of boules. A Bocce set is composed of 9 balls. One small "target ball" called a Pallino and eight Bocce balls (four each of two different colors). In period, the Bocce balls were usually wooden, and about the size of a coconut. The Pallino was about the size of a modern golfball. The modern official size Bocce ball has a diameter of 4 1/5", a circumference of 13 1/2", a weight of 2 lbs. 2oz., and is usually made of phenolic resin. The Pallino, also made of phenolic resin, is still about the size and weight of a modern golfball.
Bowling.
Curling
Pall-Mall

Dice games - knuckle-bones

Board Games