Feasts and Festivities in the Middle Ages
Korean
Minjok Leadership Academy
International Program
Park, Ji Won
Term Paper, Medieval History Class, June 2013
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Feasts in the Medieval Times
II.1.
Purpose
II.2. Preparation
II.3 Ceremony and Entertainment
III. Family Celebrations
III.1.
Birth, Wedding, and Funeral
III.1.1. Birth
III.1.2. Wedding
III.1.3. Funeral
III.2. Christmas and the Feast of Epiphany
II.2.1. Christmas
II.2.2. The Feast of Epiphany
III.3. New Year’s Day
IV. Community Celebrations
IV.1. Easter
IV.2. Lent and Carnival
IV.2.1. Lent
IV.2.2. Carnival
IV.3. Harvest Time
IV.3.1. Lammas
IV.4. May Day
IV.5.
The Feast of Fools
IV.6.
St. Barbara’s Day
V. Conclusion
VI. Notes
VII. References
I. Introduction
There are many feasts Europe, and many
of them can be dated back to the middle ages. European culture is greatly
influenced by Christianity, and the medieval times were the era when the
Christianity dominated most of society, and festivities reflect the society
well.
The thesis for this paper is that the
feasts that are still celebrated until now have one characteristic in common;
they integrated the whole community.
The definition of festivity is “joyous
celebration or occasion”. (1) Along with the festivity, the definition of feast
is “any rich or abundant meal”. (2) A feast usually takes place in a festivity,
just like there are banquets held during Christmas parties. The whole community
in this paper stands for unit of a village or a group of people living closely
in an area who are sharing same religion and culture. This excludes some
specific groups of people such as Jewish who had their own different feasts. People
who prepared food together such as people living inside same manor are
considered people living in the same community. The term “integrating the whole
community” means that the feasts and festivities made the bond between people
inside the community stronger.
The area that feasts and festivities in
the middle ages cover is very large, and the boundaries are not clear. The
cultures in Europe developed upon Christianity and the Bible, except Jewish, so
many features of feasts and festivities can be discovered through reading
religious stories. This means that feast and festivities were time of rest and
enjoyment long with going through religious ceremonies. Today, festivals and
feasts hold more meanings as entertainments rather than being religious.
However during the middle ages, many of the festivities contained important
religious significance. Because most of the celebrations were based on
religion, it is reasonable to focus on the events that are related to
Christianity. Also, throughout Europe during the middle ages, there were
countless holidays and celebrations, so it is also reasonable to set boundaries
just to focus on celebrations in regular basis, excluding special events such
as celebration for victory or coronation.
In Europe during the middle ages,
countries celebrated similar holidays and festivals. Even though there weren’t
many national festivities, the celebrations done on regular basis were
celebrated on a large scale because every household celebrated it. It is very
difficult to look for all countries around Europe for their festivities, so it
is justifiable to focus on the general celebrations throughout the whole
Europe.
Basic features of the feasts will be
discussed, and then focus on different types of festivities and celebrations.
Feasts are very important part of the celebrations, so features of the feasts
and various celebrations will be separately discussed. The celebrations will
mainly focus on big festivals which are celebrated on regular basis and are
still celebrated today because it is difficult to find records about festivals
that were only for the middle ages. This paper will show how these religious
celebrations integrated the community and are still lasting until today.
II. Feasts in the Medieval Times
II.1. Purpose of Feasts
Feasts were usually celebrated at the
end of special celebrations or festivals. Feasts were high points in people’s
lives during the middle ages, and it lightened the darkness of their lives.
Feasts and banquets were celebrated at important times such as turning points
in the year. For ordinary people, these celebrations provided rest and
enjoyment. On the other hand, these feasts were good chances to display their
wealth and power by providing expensive food to the guests. When people invited
each other to the feast, large people could gather at one place. By this,
people could get closer and forget about their mundane daily life while
enjoying the feasts altogether.
Feasts also served a religious purpose.
A German word for feast is “fest” originated from a Latin word “festus”, which
means going through religious ceremonies. Another German word for feast is
‘feier’ which originated from ‘feriae’, a Latin word meaning holiday. Most
people in the medieval Europe were Christians. During certain times of the year,
they had to fast, which means to refrain from eating, or to eat only certain
types of food. During this period, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were days
when people should not eat meat or dairy products. They believed that eating
meat and dairy products was not god for their soul. On the opposite of this
ceremony, there was also a certain period of time called feast days. About
fifty days per year were feast days, which were times of religious
celebrations. (3) The church thought that the feasts were good occasions for
people to thank God for his kindness to provide them food to enjoy. In the
times when people could not celebrate feast days due to famine, people thought
it as God’s unhappiness toward the people.
II.2. Preparations for
the Feasts
Grand feasts did not
take place so often in the middle ages due to is overly expensive price and
exotic amount of hard work. Banquets that royal families held even invited more
than thousand guests sometimes. Preparing for the feast was a very exciting
process for most of the people, but also a very hard and time consuming work at
the same time. It even took five months to prepare for the wedding banquet of
King Henry III’s daughter in December 1251. (4)
When the host decided
to hold a feast, his cooks and servants first measured the rough quantity of
the food that they had to prepare for it. They had to make sure that they had
enough food and drinks ordered and stored before the feast. Also, they prepared
enough wood and charcoal to cook the large amount of food.
Moreover, banqueting
halls had to be made sure that they are clean and decorated. Colorful drapes
and flags were used for the decoration. Utensils for eating such as spoons or
forks also had to be cleaned beforehand, and the tablecloth had to be washed
clean and ironed before the large feast. This could be seen through a painting
in the 15th century. (5)
In the feasts,
especially in the ones which were very large, many musicians and acrobats
performed to entertain the guests. These musicians and acrobats practiced their
singing and acting before they had to perform on the feast day.
During the preparation,
people had to do lots of work. However, preparing for the feast was also an
enjoyment. Preparation was a part of the feast where people gathered and
chatted while working with one another.
II.3. Ceremony and
Entertainment
Banquets had many fancy
and delicious dishes. During the feast, there were usually three courses
provided, and each course had usually five to twelve dishes. If the banquet was
held during the fast day, fish were provided as well. There were foods spiced
with various spices, and had many different kinds of meat. The most important
dish was provided at the last moment, which was the roasted meat such as lambs
or pigs.
The host of the feast
sat on the special seat, and honored guests sat on the high table near the
host. The guests sat based on their social status, and people in low status sat
far away from the host.
The feast stated when
the host said prayers, and servants brought aquamaniles, water, for washing
hands before eating. At feasts held by royalty, all food and drinks were tasted
beforehand to check if they were poisoned. In most feasts, people had
individual plates and ate their own food. However, there were some people like
Huns who rather ate food directly from the table, not finding it necessary to
use plates. Gift giving also took an important part of the feast. Guest
presented gifts to the host, and the host received exotic amount of gifts
especially when the banquet was big.
Other than eating
delicious food, entertainment also took a great part of the feast. There were
various shows prepared to entertain the guests. Even people who were not
invited watched and enjoyed the shows. Troubadours played many different types
of instruments such as flutes, drums, harps, lutes, fiddles, bagpipes, and a
medieval instrument called hurdy-gurdies. Minstrels sang songs, acrobats acted,
and there were some plays which actors prepared. Combats like jousting were
held to entertain the guests. Jousting that is shown in the movie ‘Ivanhoe’ was to fight the real combat
for one’s victory (6), but jousting in feasts was mainly for entertainment, not
much of other purposes. These entertainments made people enjoying the feast
even more excited.
III. Family
Celebrations
III.1. Birth, Wedding,
and Funeral
III.1.1. Birth
When people married in
the medieval times, their primary reason for marriage was to have children.
Giving birth to a baby was a very important, but also a difficult process.
During the middle ages, one in five women died while giving birth to their
baby. Also, even after the baby was born, one-third of the babies died before
reaching the age of five because of various illnesses or injuries.
Childbirth in the
middle ages has a lot of religious features. Children in the middle ages were
mostly born at home, in a room only with women. Male physicians were allowed in
only when the mother giving birth needed a surgery. In most of the times,
whether the women were noble or not, midwives assisted the childbirth. A
midwife usually had years of experience with childbirth, and she accompanied a
few of trainees along. Female relatives of friends of the woman giving birth
were also inside the room, encouraging and supporting the woman. After the baby
was born, the newborn baby was wiped clean and was wrapped with clean clothes.
The baby’s gums were rubbed with honey because people believed that baby’s
first taste of life should be sweet. (7)
Then, the newborn baby
went through a ceremony called baptism. Baptism was meant to erase all sin from
the past and welcome the child into the Catholic Church. Shortly after the
child was born, the father assembled the godparent. The role of godparents was
to teach prayers and Christian morals to the child. Godparents held the baby
and promised to raise the child as a good Christian during the baptism.
Godparents were usually relatives or close friends, and they were related in
spiritual terms rather than by blood.
In the middle ages,
people usually followed Jewish custom of not letting women who gave childbirth
recently enter holy places. (8) Therefore, father, along with the midwife and
the godparent went to the church. Mostly, this was a very festive event. With
the priest, they went inside the church, and the priest announced the baby’s
name. The names were usually the names of Christian saints. During the baptism,
the baby was dipped in the holy water by the godparents, and then was wrapped
in white linen clothes. After this ceremony was over, the family returned home
and celebrated the feast for the childbirth.
Birthdays in the middle
ages were celebrated on holidays. Since people didn’t keep track of the dates
that they were born except for the nobilities and the royal families, so people
only knew the closest church days. In birthdays, they enjoyed a festive meal
with their families and godparents, and sometimes received gifts.
III.1.2 Wedding
The foremost reason of
marriage during the middle ages was to have children and to succeed the family.
Shown in the movie ‘El cid’, the
marriage is arranged by the family or higher person in status, as in this
movie, it was King Ferdinand. In the medieval times, people’s status greatly
influenced the age that they got married. Usually, noble women married at their
age about 14, while their husbands were much older than them. People who were
not part of the noble family, like peasants, tradespeople, and merchants,
mostly got married in their twenties when both families were economically and
internally prepared for marriage. Men usually got married after they acquired a
piece of land and has been trained in some way to be able to support the
family.
Before marriage, both
families promised to one other that the bride and groom will marry, and this
was called the Betrothal. The Betrothal was arranged several weeks or even
several years before the marriage. Early Betrothal was usually practiced by the
royal families who wanted to arrange the marriage between the families that
they wanted to be in a relationship. In the movie ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’, Kristin and Simon had Betrothal arranged
even though Kristin breaks it up by deciding to go to Erlend instead.
The groom provided a
ring as a promise of marriage, and bride brought her properties to the place
where they will live after getting married.
On the wedding day, the
entire community celebrated the wedding, and until the early middle ages, there
were no priests standing to arrange the wedding. However, from the 1100s, church
got more involved in wedding ceremony. In the movie ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’, the bride weds with her loose and wearing
the family bridal crown. This was a privilege reserved for virgin brides. (9) By
the 1200, a newly married couple went to the church and was blessed by the
priest immediately after the wedding vows. A nuptial mass then took place inside
the church to celebrate the marriage.
All marriages, no
matter whether they were peasants or nobles, finished with a large feast.
During the feast, large banquets were held. At simple peasant feast, guests ate
roasted meat and sweet baked pastries. In royal wedding feasts, many
entertainments were prepared to impress and amaze the guests. There were many
fancy dishes. Many people gathered and wished for a bright future of the new
couple.
Wedding was a religious
and important ceremony, but a festive one at the same time where many people
gathered at one place to celebrate.
III.1.3. Funeral
Even though funeral is not something
joyous or like a festive celebration, it is still one of the occasions where
many guests came and a big banquet was held. Funeral was more like a religious
ceremony of sending one to God’s aside
In medieval times, people mostly died at
their home with their family around them. When a person was about to die, the
priest performed a final ritual shortly before the person actually died. It was
like a last prayer for the dying person. The priest touched the person’s eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, feet, and hands with special oil. The person gave last words
and will to the family where witnesses were present, and last confessions to
the priest. The priest prayed for the person, and freed the person of the sin. A
last moment of a person’s life was done in a very sacred mood, in a very
religious way.
Usually, old women in
the community helped prepare for the burial. After cleaning the body and
changing the clothes, the body was placed in the wooden coffin and carried to
the local church. The funeral procession was quite simple. The clergy said
brief prayers for the dead, and some people arranged rituals such as funeral
masses. After the funeral service, body was carried to the graveyard, and
sometimes the body was removed from the coffin so that the coffin could be
reused. (10)
The funeral feast was
not actually a festive feast. It was rather seen as commemorating the dead
person by drinking wine and eating some food. Also, during the funeral feasts, host
and guests of the funeral feast were expected to give money to the poor in
memory of the dead person.
III.2. Christmas and
the Feast of Epiphany
III.2.1. Christmas
Christmas is also called as the Feast of
Nativity, and it celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas celebrations
began on the evening of December 24th and continued until January 6th.
December 24th was Christmas Eve, and January 6th was the
Feast of Epiphany.
Even though Christmas is said to be the
day when Jesus Christ was born, there is no data from the middle ages
supporting this. Since people had no ways of keeping track of their birthdays,
no one could be sure about the day of Jesus’ birth.
As Christianity became
more prominent throughout Europe, people stated to celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ. In different parts of the Europe, Christmas was celebrated on different
days around January 6th. However, it was decided as December 25th
after a religious council was held in Nicaea in AD 325. (11) December 25th is a
day which the sun starts to revive after the winter solstice. Winter solstice
is on December 22nd. However in the middle ages, there was no big
difference between December 22nd and 25th, so winter solstice
was thought as the time around Christmas. Biologically, Christmas actually is a
day that the cold winter is about to end and the sun comes out again, and the
sun in this case could symbolize the birth of Jesus Christ.
In northern Europe,
people cut down a large tree and trimmed the branches. The log was called the
Yule log, and it was then dragged to the fireplace. Until the Yule log has
burnt away, the Christmas season continued. The Christmas season is said to be
the most popular time for masked dances and pageants in the middle ages. People
celebrated Jesus’ birth as a great festival.
III.2.2. The Feast of
Epiphany
The Christmas
celebration continued to the Feast of Epiphany. In the Bible, it says that God
created the humans on the 6th day. That’s why people thought that
January 6th was the day that Jesus Christ was born. However, after
Christmas was chosen as December 25th, January 6th, epiphany,
celebrated the arrival of three wise men bearing gifts for baby Jesus. The eve
of the Feast of Epiphany is called the Twelfth Night, and it became the main
gift giving holidays during the medieval times.
During the Feast of
Epiphany, small cakes were baked for the festive meal. Some of the small cakes
had hidden prize inside, and the person who found out the prize became the
center of the day.
As it says in the
Bible, three wise men followed the star which showed that baby Jesus was born,
and praised Jesus. There is still a tradition of dressing up in star and the
three men and handing out treats on the day of Epiphany. Today’s tradition of
giving out gifts during the Christmas season originated from this religious
story of Jesus’ birth.
II.3. New Year’s Day
Different parts of
Europe celebrated New Year’s Day on different days. Most of the people
celebrated the New Year’s Day on March 25th, which was a very
important holiday called the Feast of Annunciation.
It was from the year
576 until the 1700s when the Feast of Annunciation became the New Year’s Day.
IV. Community
Celebrations
IV.1. Easter
Easter is another holiday which is
thought to be one of the most important holidays. Easter commemorate Jesus’
resurrection after he was crucified.
The week preceding Easter was called the
Holy Week, and this week was full of important rituals. Palm Sunday, the Sunday
before Easter, recalls the day when Jesus Christ arrived in Jerusalem. People
welcomed Jesus by spreading palm branches in his path, so it is called as Palm
Sunday. On this day, priests and worshipers marched to local churches carrying
braches and singing hymns, blessing people.
The Thursday before Easter was called
Maundy Thursday, which was the day that Jesus had last meals with his
disciples. The next Day, Easter Friday, was the day when Jesus was crucified,
and processions were held in streets to mark the crucifixion.
On Easter Sunday, Christians were
required to attend Mass and Communion. There were beautiful decorations and
great service with special music, which showed how important Easter was.
IV.2. Lent and Carnival
IV.2.1. Lent
Winter holidays ended
with the beginning of Lent. Lent is a 40-day period of prayer and fasting-not
eating meat-that prepared Christians for Easter. 40 days didn’t include the
Sundays, and during Lent, people were not supposed to eat meat, sweets, or
fatty foods. People were expected to attend Mass, and since Lent was a scared
period of time to recover from sins, no weddings could take place.
IV.2.2. Carnival
Carnival
is a period immediately before the Lent. It was the last chance to enjoy meat
and festive feasts before going into 40 days of Lent. The word “carnival” means
“putting aside meat”. Carnival was mostly held around February, and during the
Carnival, people dressed up as funny and ugly as possible.
Venetia and France are very famous for
Carnival. Carnival was thought as a blasphemy because the church thought that
carnival didn’t fit with Christianity. Carnivals however still remain until
these days.
IV.3, Harvest Time
Late summer was the start of the harvest
season. From the ancient times when Christianity was not prominent, people
traditionally celebrated August 1st as the beginning of the harvest
season.
During the harvest season, people
usually had to work from dawn to dusk. Farming mostly started from the spring,
and during the August, people harvested what they had farmed in the late winter
to the early spring. In August, people harvested winter crops such as wheat and
rye and a little later, they harvested spring crops such as barley and oats.
Since people celebrated their hard work
during the harvest season and their farming throughout the year, people in a
community held a feast. In the Middle Ages, August 1st became a
holiday called Lammas.
IV.3.1. Lammas
Lammas is on August 1st, and
it is also called as loaf-mass. In the early Middle Ages, people thanked God
for their harvest. On Lammas, first bread baked from the new
season’s grain were blessed in church in order to celebrate the safely gathered
crops.
When the first crops were harvested
safely, people could truly enjoy the Lammas Day celebration. Festivals on
Lammas had strong religious elements because people firstly thanked God for
their harvest. Their first bread was also brought to church, and this might
explain the word “lammas”, which means “loaf-mass”.
Following this religious ceremony, the
community kept enjoying the celebration by continuing the party and sometimes
by giving gifts to each other. In some parts of Europe, people went through a
candlelit procession with the new bread to pray for the good harvest fortune
for the next year.
During the harvest season and the feast,
the grain was brought by a cart and oxen, which was decorated by wheat and
wildflowers. Ale made from grain and hops were the main drinks in the feasts,
and musicians played music to excite the feast. All men and women celebrated
their hard work throughout the season.
IV.4. May Day
May Day is on May 1st.
Traditionally, the first day of May is said to have connection with love,
fertility, and growth of plants and trees. In Switzerland, the weather was
still cold and rainy until the end of April. It was May when the trees turn
green and flowers blossom.
On May Day, young men
and women of the community went a-maying, which is going into the woods and
meadows to collect wildflowers and tree branches. Nobles richly dressed up and
went out to ride horses and gather flowers while picnic.
People of a community
cut a tree and most of its branches, and they decorated this tree as a high
pole. Then, they stood it on the center of the village. This pole was called a
Maypole. This custom originated because trees stood for liveliness
traditionally. In some parts of Europe, people danced around the Maypole and
enjoyed the approaching summer.
On May Day, boys put
the tress on the roof of the house which the girl they like lived, and the day
after, girls could see if there were any boys which like her.
There are many
interesting celebrations on May Day, and it was a great festivity for the whole
village in the Middle Ages which welcomed summer.
IV.5. The Feast of
Fools
In
the Middle Ages, there was a day which is similar to today’s “April Fool’s
Day”. It was the Feast of Fools. During the Medieval times, people’s lives
differed based on their social status. The royal families’ lives were much
different from the ones of the peasants’. On this day, the poor and low had the
chance to make fun of the people above them in social hierarchy. This tradition
was mostly celebrated on January 1st. During the Feast of Fools, the
peasants the poorest workers dressed up as lords and bishops. By pretending
that they were in a higher rank that the people who were normally higher than
them, the poor made fun of the rich.
However, church leaders thought that it
was very disrespectful, and they completely banned this celebration under
severe penalties by the Council of Basel in 1431. (12) Even though it was
unofficially celebrated, fooling people on higher status was illicit. Also,
since it caused conflict within a society, it was banned and couldn’t last for
a long time.
IV.5. St. Barbara’s Day
Barbara was first known
in 7th century in Rome. She was locked up in a tower when her father
was away since h father wanted to isolate Barbara from the world and keep her
safe. However, when her father returned home one day, he noticed that there was
one more window on the tower. There used to be two windows, but now there were
three. He asked Barbara about this, and she confessed that she was baptized by
a priest and that the third window was made to stand for the Holy Trinity.
Barbara’s father became
very angry, and he killed Barbara. On the day she died, cherry branched
blossomed. That day was December 4th, and it was celebrated as St.
Barbara’s Day. It was celebrated by miners or people who might have to face
sudden deaths. However, it was not celebrated widely, and it is hard to find
traces for feasts celebrating St. Barbara’s Day since only the minority
celebrated it.
V. Conclusion
There are many holidays that were celebrated
in the medieval times and are still celebrated nowadays. Even though there are
some differences in the ways that they were celebrated, the customs are quite
similar.
Overall, the most important and common
factor that can be found throughout the festivals that are still celebrated
nowadays is that they integrated people no matter how high or low their status
was.
The people gathered for feasts and
banquets, and they enjoyed the party altogether from the preparation progress
to the stage where they actually finished the festival. After the birth,
godparents and the whole family went to the church and celebrated on the way to
the church and back home. Here, all the community could see that a new baby was
born and they celebrated it with a great feast. It was same with the wedding
and the funeral.
Christmas is the celebration which
commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, and this was one of the most popular
celebrations where all households celebrated. The atmosphere of Christmas put
everyone into joy and made them come together. The Feast of Epiphany
commemorates the three wise men who visited Jesus Christ to celebrate his birth,
and the first Santa Claus originated from this festival. By giving out gifts,
the society is once again integrated with warm and happy feelings about
Christmas.
May Day is also a great example when the
whole community welcomes summer and enjoys May. May Day was celebrated as a
unit of a village, and it made people to work and enjoy together. Also, harvest
was something that had to be done altogether, and therefore the feast was
celebrated altogether as well.
The
Feast of Fools was forbidden with severe punishment, and by this, it can be
seen that church officially put this festival into the end. This feast was
celebrated by people in lower status who wanted to fool people who were
normally the ones that they needed to serve. Also, St. Barbara’s Day was a
festivity which only the minority celebrated. It didn’t integrate the
community, so it is hardly celebrated nowadays. This is a great example which
shows that feasts which caused conflict between layers of society didn’t last
long enough.
All the festivities in this term papers
show that festivities which made people to come together lasts for a long time.
It can be concluded that medieval festivities which are still celebrated
nowadays are the ones which integrates the community and make people gather
together.
VI. Notes
(1)
Dictionary.com. Festivity.
(2) Dictionary.com.
Festivity.
(3) Bhote,
Tehmina. Medieval Feasts and Banquets. 2004. p.36
(4) Bhote,
Tehmina. Medieval Feasts and Banquets. 2004. p.37
(5) Bhote,
Tehmina. Medieval Feasts and Banquets. 2004. p.38
Photo credit from Bridgeman Art Library
(6) Richard
Thorpe. ‘Ivanhoe’. 1952
(7) Groves,
Marsha. Manners and Customs in the Middle
Ages. 2006. p.24
(8) The Medieval Child, Part 2: Entry into
the Medieval World. Melissa Snell. 2009.
(9) Wikepedia.
Kristin Lavransdatter. Lastly modified in 2013.
(10) Groves,
Marsha. Manners and Customs in the Middle
Ages. 2006. p.25
(11) Beniyama,
Yukio. Europe History&Culture.
2006. (translated in 2007). p.122
(12) Wikepedia.
Feast of Fools. Lastly modified on 2013.
VII. Reference
VII.1. Movies
(1) Richard Thorpe. ‘Ivanhoe’. 1952.
(2) Liv
Ullmann. ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’. 1995.
(3) Anthony
Mann. ‘El cid’. 1961.
VII.2. Books
(1) Groves,
Marsha. Manners and Customs in the Middle
Ages. 2006.
(2) Bhote,
Tehmina. Medieval Feasts and Banquets. 2004.
(3) Ulrich
Kuhn-Hein. Feste Feiern in Europa.
2000 (translated in 2000).
(4) Beniyama,
Yukio. Europe History&Culture.
2006. (translated in 2007).
(5) Yoon, Sunja.
History and Culture of Festivals.
1976.
WII.3. Websites
(1) Middle Ages
Holidays
(2) IMDb.
Ivanhoe(1952).
(3) Dictionary.com.
Festivity.
(4) The Medieval Child, Part 2: Entry into the
Medieval World. Melissa Snell. 2009.
(5) Wikepedia.
Feast of Fools. Lastly modified on 2013.
(6) Martindale, Cyril Charles. "Christmas." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 19 Jun. 2013.
(7) CHAPTER VI. Funeral feasts and Processions
(8)
Suite 101. The Role of the Blacksmith in the Middle
Ages. Rachel Bellerby. 2010.
(9) History
Learning Site. Medieval Farming.
(11)
Suite 101. Lammas Day-Celebrating the Medieval Harvest. 2008.
(12) Holweck, Frederick. "The
Feast of the Annunciation." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
1. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907. 19 Jun. 2013
(13) El cid- The
Film
(14) Wikepedia.
Kristin Lavransdatter. Lastly modified in 2013.
(15) Fish
Eaters. Feast of St. Barbara
