For social studies, I take Medieval History class by Mr. Alexander Ganse. During this term, I learned a lot while researching and writing a paper, aka Ganse Paper!. The topic for my paper was "Feasts and Festivities in the Middle Ages", and it will be feel very familiar while reading since many of the festivities celebrated today originated from the Middle Ages.

My topic is a very interesting one, so ENJOY!

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 15^th 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 24^th and continued until January 6^th. December 24^th was Christmas Eve, and January 6^th 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 6^th. However, it was decided as December 25^th 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 22^nd. However in the middle ages, there was no big difference between December 22^nd and 25^th, 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 6^th day. That’s why people thought that January 6^th was the day that Jesus Christ was born. However, after Christmas was chosen as December 25^th, January 6^th,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 25^th, 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 1^st 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 1^st became a holiday called Lammas.

IV.3.1. Lammas

Lammas is on August 1^st, 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 1^st. 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 1^st. 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 7^th 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 4^th, 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.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/festivity?s=t&path=/

(2) Dictionary.com. Festivity.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feast?s=t&path=/

(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