Tempest S
10-22-2008, 10:07 AM
For a project I need to know a few brief details on customs and entertainment in medieval london and haven't been able to find information anywhere else. Please help! Thanks!
Powered by Yahoo Answers
Desk3Bound
10-22-2008, 10:28 AM
Sex, drunkeness, lewdness, petty theivery (just like today).
Powered by Yahoo Answers
Louise C
10-22-2008, 12:22 PM
The calendar in medieval times revolved around the church year. Saints Days were holidays and there were a great many of them. Christmas lasted for thirteen days, from christmas Day until Epiphany (6th January). Candlemass (1st February) Easter, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi were all major festivals.
Corpus christi (in June) featured spectacular processions, the largest was supplied by the Skinners company, and contained 200 clergy and 100 candles. Around this the individual parishes of the city provided their own celebrations, decorating their churches with roses, which were sometimes mixed with sweet white woodruff. Garlands were also carried in the parish processions.
Mayday was another popular medieval holiday, when the people of London would have gone out into the countryside to gather may blossoms and bring them home to deck the outside of their houses. John Stow recalled how in the reign of Henry VIII Londoners would try to spend the morning "in the sweet meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savoyr of sweet flowers and with the harmony of birds.'
An important form of entertainment in medieval London, and all medieval towns, were the Mystery Plays, based on stories from the Bible, which were performed by the medieval guilds. They were lavish productions, the guilds would spend a lot of money on costumes, scenery, and special effects. The plays were normally performed in churchyards. The most popular subjects were the story of the Creation and the Garden of Eden, Noah's flood, the birth of Christ, the Easter story and the Passion, and the Harrowing of ****. Although based on Biblical stories, they were not solemn affairs, but full of earthy medieval humour and slapstick.
Fairs were a major source of entertainment in medieval times. St Bartholomew's Fair was one of the largest fairs to be held in London. Fairs were primarily places for buying and selling, goods of all kind would be sold. But there would also be all kinds of entertainment, singers, dancers, acrobats, jugglers, fire-eaters, and the bloodthirsty entertainments of rooster fighting and bear-baiting.
Archery was a skill all men were supposed to practice at that time, and medieval Londoners would have gone outside the town to shoot at the butts. Wrestling, running and jumping were all sports that were popular. Football games were sometimes played, they were very large and violent, with perhaps hundreds of men on both sides, and there were often injuries and sometimes deaths (the town authorities tended to discourage the game for this reason).
Music and dancing would have been popular with people of all classes, and many people played musical instruments for their own entertainment and that of their families.
Powered by Yahoo Answers
franky
10-22-2008, 06:22 PM
i don't know but whoever this is u must be from live oak and this assignment is for English Mr. Fredicks class.
who is this?
Powered by Yahoo Answers