Helena's Paper on Holidays in the Middle Ages

Holidays in the Middle Ages

By : Helena

Holidays in the Middle Ages were celebrated in a variety of ways, but all public holidays were correlated with the Christian church. Singing and dancing were often involved in holiday festivities. Plays and puppet shows were also usually associated with holidays and sometimes poems were written for a holiday.

The Middle Ages were a period of european history. Some historians say that the Middle Ages were from AD 500 to AD 1485, but others say that they were from AD 400 to AD 1400, and AD 500 to AD 1500. The Middle Ages were a time of contrast with powerful lords and peasants who had virtually no power or control. You wouldn’t usually move out of the rank that you were born into in the Middle Ages, and 80% of the people in the Middle Ages were peasants. Peasants in the Middle Ages had to grow crops for themselves and the lords, but the lords in the Middle Ages would not usually pity the people of lower ranks. Most of the Middle Ages circled around christianity and the church. There were lots of nuns and monks that were literate. But, kings that might have been educated in the Middle Ages might still not be literate. There were many of fantastic castles and buildings built in the Middle Ages.

There were many holidays in the Middle Ages, some were bigger and some were smaller holidays called saint days. On most holidays in the Middle Ages, you had to attend mass, which was the service at church. After mass, would be when the celebrating would usually begin.
Christmas started on December 24th and went until January 6th. People would take one week off of work for celebration. Christmas celebrate. On Christmas, people would decorate their homes with green leaves like holly and ivy, and you would also place a yule log in the fire. On Christmas, the priests would play “the fool” in church. And on the last day of Christmas, January 6th, there would be a feast called the feast of the Epiphany.

May day took place on the first day of May. At May day celebrations you would dance around the maypole which is a pole with lots of ribbons and leaves.
Easter took a whole week to celebrate, just like Christmas. Easter celebrated the crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There was also a 40 day period of fasting called Lent that lead up to Easter. On Lent, you were not aloud to eat sweets or any fatty foods. No marriages were allowed to take place either.

Some smaller holidays in the Middle Ages celebrated the beginning of something. New year’s day is celebrated on March 1st. Some people also celebrated it on January 1st or January 6th.
Midsummer's eve celebrated the first day of summer. People would start celebrating right after Mass at church, and it would go until late evening.
Lammas day was a small holiday. It celebrated bread, and was celebrated in August. On Lammas day, there would be a feast containing mostly bread.
St. days would usually celebrate a certain saint. St. Valentine's day celebrated St.Valentine, St. Catherine’s day celebrated St. Catherine, etc. Michaelmas celebrated St. Michel and his adventures in the bible, but it also determined if it would rain in the next 40 days or not. St. Valentine’s day not only celebrate St. Valentine, it also celebrated love. People would usually celebrate saint days by singing and dancing, but some had other special traditions.

No matter what your role in the manner was, you would still be able to go to celebrations, but you would have different duties. All the poor people were allowed to go to celebrations and take a day off work in the fields and the lord would have to hold a feast for all the poor.
The lords would have special things that they had to take care of at celebrations. For example, lords would have to throw a feast for all of the peasants that worked for him and the lord would have to hold the actual celebration along with the church. The lords would also go to church before celebrations along with the poor.
All knights were allowed to go to all celebrations. If the knights were fighting a battle, all battles would be paused so that people could still attend celebrations. Also, if the knight was currently working for a king or a lord, they would definitely be able to go to festivals because the lord’s job was also to help hold the festivals.

There would be different types of entertainment for children, and adults. Children would often bob for apples or play other small games. Young boys would usually go hunting for food with the adults, and people would use that food for the celebration. Kids would also like to play sports like soccer and golf.
Adults would have a variety of things to do at celebrations as well . There would always be lots of singing and dancing at celebrations and some men would go hunting. In a few holidays people would have a parade, were you march and sing through the town. There would be different types of shows at celebrations in the Middle Ages. There would be lots of plays and people would also put on puppet shows. On St.Valentine's day, you would write special plays about love and perform them at the festival.

There were many different holidays in the Middle Ages, and some of which we still celebrate today. But, the Holidays that we still celebrate are likely not celebrated in the same ways, some traditions will be like the traditions in Middle Ages while some are gone, and others are new.

Sebastian's Outline on the Plague In the Middle Ages

1. Life in the Middle Ages was very different before and after the Plague. Eventually the system normalized, but the Plague had a huge impact on society.
2. The Bubonic Plague was a serious disease that spread throughout Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages.
1. Plague is a word that describes any serious disease that spreads quickly from one person to another.
2. The Bubonic Plague was a rat carried disease that created swelling on the body.
3. The Plague stayed in Europe from 1347 al the way into 1351, though the first sightings of it were in China in 1334.
4. The Plague was carried on disgusting, rat infested trade ships going from China to Europe.
5. The Plague was in the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages.
1. The Middle Ages were a time between ancient and modern times.
2. The Middle Ages was between the times of 500 and 1500.
3. The Middle Ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire and ended with the Beginning of the Renaissance.
3. Life in the Middle Ages is how people imagine life before the Plague. Peasants work in the fields, nobles handle disagreements, and Kings are greedy.
1. The population in the Middle Ages was slowly rising, going up, up, up.
1. During the Middle Ages, the population went from approximately 3 million to about 4 million.
2. People were encouraged to have many children, for many died during childbirth, so it was not uncommon to see lots of crying babies in a peasants house.
2. The Feudal System was the ranking of people in society in the Middle Ages. It told you who had what job and who would get your job when you died.
1. The King or Queen was the highest, and there was always someone wanting their throne, usually the heir to the throne, followed by lords, who fought for the King, were higher than knights and wealthy merchants, who fought for nobles and towns and had mastered a trade, then the townspeople, who were the blacksmiths, butchers, millers, apothecaries, etc., who were only higher than the peasants (villeins and serfs), who worked in the field to harvest crops.
2. The feudal system was also the procedure that tells you who gets what job. For nobles (Kings and lords), your son or closest relative, but for townspeople, you get apprenticed, then eventually open your own shop. But if you weren’t the oldest son of a noble, you could only become a knight or a churchman.

4. Life after the Plague was very different after the Plague than before it. Many people died and the Peasants revolted. All in all, life was very different.
1. One of the main changes after the Plague was the population, which dropped enormously during the Plague.
1. The population during the Plague decreased by about ⅓, from about 4 million to approximately 2¾ million.
2. Although writers of the time said that the Plague had killed ½ or 1 out of every 2 people, they overestimated because it had been a time of death, and all around them they had seen caos.
3. Eventually the population reached what it had been, but that time was about 100 years later, in about 1450.
2. Along with people, the Plague indirectly killed crops.
1. When the people died, there was a shortage of labor and crops failed.
2. Villages were left to decay and weeds replaced the farms once bursting with color and food.
3. Crops were able to grow again pretty soon after, but the Plague had left its mark.
5. The Feudal System changed dramatically after the Plague.
1. After the Plague laws were made and people stood up for themselves and said something like, “This is not right. I think that this should happen,” and for once, people agreed with one another. This could cause a revolt.
1. The biggest revolt was the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, when Parliament announced a poll tax taxing everyone over the age of 15 extra taxes.
2. People had died not very far in the past, so there was a shortage of labourers, and peasants realised it.
1. Peasants demanded up to 8 times as much money as they had been getting before.
2. A lot of peasants demanded that they be free to do whatever they wanted, because you had to ask your lord if you could get married, leave the property and become apprenticed.
3. Many peasants bought their way to freedom, but a few lords denied and made sure that rules were enforced.
4. This caused minor revolts on lords who always had to be on the lookout for peasants coming in to the kill.
3.  In some places, villages were abandoned for lack of labourers to take care of the crops.
1. Grass grew on the roads and pathways and deserted cottages fell into ruin.
2. Farm lands that once held lush fields of corn were left to sprout weeds. This left the communities to be destroyed and feudal systems to be erased.

6. There were many revolts after the Plague because peasants realised their increased value and knew that if they revolted, they could get what they wanted.
1. They stood up for themselves and revolted. The biggest revolt was the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which was provoked by the poll tax.
2. The Peasants’ Revolt was a revolt to end feudal services.
1. The poll tax was an extra tax that Parliament created to gain extra money.
2. The reason that they wanted an end to feudal services was that you could get paid a lot more in another job.
3. If feudal services were abolished, peasants would make more money.
4. The poll tax obviously wasn’t liked by peasants, so they hid themselves so that they wouldn’t have to pay.
5. This made it so that Parliament collected much less than planned.
6. In the spring of 1381, new nobles were hired to root out the tax-dodgers.
7. This created the uprising for a revolt.

3. On Thursday, June 14 the peasants marched to London, destroying the city.
1. Led by Wat Tyler and rabble rousing priest John Ball, the peasant army was strong and ready to end feudal services.
2. Through rebel spies, Tyler told the King, King Richard II at the time, that he wanted a face to face meeting so they could negotiate.
3. Because Tyler was destroying his city, the King had no choice but to agree.

4. On Friday, June 14 Tyler and Richard met.
1. When the King approached, Wat kneeled and greeted the King nicely.
2. They then talked and talked and talked for a very long time.
3. They finally agreed upon these terms: and end to feudal services, the renting at fourpence an acre (four pennies, which was about 2 days amount of work considering that the average peasant made 2 pennies a day), and the death of all ‘traitors’.
4. King Richard II agreed but said that all ‘traitors’ had to go to court and be judged by a court of law.
5. Peasants wanted to make sure that Richard followed up on his promises. So, 30 clerks were sent to make charters of freedom for the peasants, so that they were now free.

5. Meanwhile, a band of rebels got into the tower that the King had been in.
1. There they found Simon Sidbury, John Legge and Sir Robert Hales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the organiser of the poll tax and the King’s treasurer (a treasurer is a person who takes care of all the money or treasure).
2. They considered these people ‘traitors’. So they dragged them out of the tower and beheaded them.
3. It turns out that they nailed Simon’s head along with his bishop’s hat to the London Bridge.
4. They killed a few more ‘traitors’, but they were mostly lawyers, tax-collectors and foreign merchants.

6. A couple days later Wat and Richard met at Smithfield, a town just outside London to talk about more rules that the peasants wanted to be put in place.
1. Wat greeted the King warmly and then told the King what he wanted.
2. Tyler demanded that the lords’ estates should be reduced to ‘narrow proportions’ and that the lands of the Church should be divided among the people.
3. Once again, Richard had no choice but to agree when Tyler put forth these demands, so, he agreed.
4. It was very hot and Wat Tyler needed a drink.
5. He rinsed his mouth and spat on the ground. It may seem like a great offense to do this in front of a King, but in the Middle Ages it was not uncommon.
6. As Wat Tyler remounted his pony, one of the King’s followers yelled at Tyler and the Mayor of London rode forward and wounded Tyler. Then a young squire finished him off.
7. When the peasants heard they drew back and were a little bit afraid. But then, the King ride triumphantly toward the peasants and said, “Villeins, I am you King. Will you shoot your King? I thought not. Now, follow me, for I am your leader!”
8. The peasants cautiously followed the King but after no attack from knights the peasants disbanded and went home.
7. After the peasants went home, only a very small army remained.
1. The young King Richard II rode in with his knights and arrested the remaining peasants.
2. Then the knights went from town to town destroying any resistance and revolt left in the peasants.
3. There were some scattered attempts at revolt, like in the town of St. Albans in Hertfordshire some peasants drained the abbott’s fishing pond and killed all of the game in his forest.
4. These attempts were broken up a few days later when the royal army arrested any peasant involved with the revolt.
5. When the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt were finally killed, the King had a tight hold on his position at the top of the feudal system.
8. There were other revolts across Europe. They were not as big as the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, but there was some looting involved.
9. In France, the peasant Jacquerie rose up in May-June and started a revolt. He gathered a small army and looted a few castles but were immediately and bloodily stopped.
6. The differences before and after the Plague were intense. But there was a 4 year gap when the Plague ran wild, so I’d like to talk about that.
1. The plague indirectly killed crops.
1. Towns depopulated and trade failed.
2. Villages were deserted and crops rotted for lack of labourers to take care of them.
3. Livestock also died because the plague killed them and all of their food was gone.
4. Crops were failing, people were dying and the feudal system was breaking apart.
2. The feudal system change tremendously after the plague, but did revolts happen during the plague?
1. The answer is no. People weren’t as dumb as we think and they knew that going in a large crowd would kill them because if 1 person got infected in the streets, then the whole group could die from the plague.
2. Also, if you were to tell people that you were going to start a revolt, they could all die or get infected right before the revolt, which gives you no revolt.
3. Life was unpredictable during the plague. One day you could feel never better,and then the next day you have the plague.
4. This made it hard to do anything as a group, so in result, peasants didn’t revolt.
3. People in the Middle Ages had no knowledge of medical science, so ‘doctors’ were just ordinary people using guesswork and/or superstition.
1. The ‘medicines’ that they made could be anything from crushed rocks to live insects to animal insides to herbs.
2. As you can see, they had no idea what they were doing.
3. Many ‘doctors’ died during the plague because they were in close contact with people who were infected.
4. It was very common to see a doctor help someone, the patient dies, and then the doctor gets infected.
5. Some people took healing into their own hands.
6. The 3 most common ways that were thought to help were drinking vinegar, bleeding yourself (meaning that they would take blood out of themselves), and avoiding moist foods.
7. These ‘healing methods’ seem preposterous to us today, but remember, in the Middle Ages there was no idea of medical science.
4. Another common healing method was prayer.
1. Many priests would not help the dying people for fear of getting the plague themselves.
2. The heroic ones often would die themselves.
3. The Franciscan Order, an order that was created by the Church to help people lost about 125,000 brothers (members) in order to try and help the victims of the plague.
4. Many other priests tried to help, but just ended up dying themselves.
5. Many people had just died so all the dead bodies had to be put somewhere.
1. Graveyards were filled up quickly so new burial grounds had to be found quickly.
2. So, people ended up digging giant holes and shoveling cartloads of people into them.
3. People didn’t want to get near the dead bodies so people that did this work were paid high wages.  

Mary's Slides on Formal Education in the Middle Ages

Follow the Link to a tour of formal education for boys and girls in the Middle Ages:

Anabelle: Housing in the Middle Ages with a focus on Seasons

1. Seasons affected housing in the Middle Ages.
1. In the winter people had to bring their animals inside their homes so they wouldn’t freeze.
2. In the spring homes would get really wet because peasants’ houses were made of straw.
3. In the summer houses became very hot in the peasants’ straw homes. Air did not circulate.
2. The Middle Ages is a period in the history of Europe.
1. 
   
   1. The Middle Ages started at the fall of Rome and ended with the beginning of the Renaissance.
   1. It lasted about 1,000.
2. Peasants worked for the lords and ladies, who were royal.
1. The royal houses were made more for protection than anything else.
2. If you were a villein farmer and the lord’s land was sold you would go with the land.
3. A peasant is someone who works on a farm in the Middle Ages.
1. Houses of peasants were usually made out of straw
3. There are many differences between modern and Medieval houses.
1. In the Middle Ages beds were made out of straw, now we have mattresses.
2. In the Middle Ages people used fireplaces and candles to light their rooms now we use light bulbs.
3. In a peasant’s house there were two to three rooms, now we most often have three or more rooms in our homes.
4. Nobles would live in cottages and houses with better conditions.
1. A Medieval cottage from the 13th century could be inhabited by the lord of the manor, his family and the servants.
2. This cottage would have two rooms.
1. One room would contain the hearth living area.
2. One room would have the stove oven.
3. The house would have been very dark.
5. With more money peasants were able to afford better housing and many lived in wattle and daub houses.
1. Wattle and daub houses were taller and wider than the simple stick and straw housesa. a.a a) Wattle and daub houses are made of interwoven sticks and twigs covered with mud or clay.
4. Depending on your class you would have a different type of home.
1. Castles were not comfortable. 1. Castles were build as fortresses. 2. Castles were cold, drafty, and damp. 3. Castles indoor plumbing consisted of a hole in the floor called a latrine.
2. The low middle class was not that bad because some had farms.
3. Many peasants had worse lives than beggars.
1. Some peasants weren’t free but beggars were.
2. Peasant homes wouldn’t last because their homes were made out of sticks and straw.
1. Peasants had nothing but straw and stick to build their houses.
5. Climate did affect housing in the Middle Ages.
1. In the summer it was really hot.
2. In the winter it was cold and heat from animals was needed to stay alive.
3. In the spring it was damp.
4. Depending on your job you might not spend a lot of time indoors.
1. If you were a yeoman who was a farmer you would be outside most of the time.
1. Your children would be raised outside to also work on the farm.