Emma Taylor
6th period
During the Medieval Times, life could be very stressful. Harsh daily life allowed breaks
to have fun and let people enjoy themselves. Medieval society did participate in many games
and recreational activities. Some included feasts, games, and a variety of sports, tournaments,
gambling, music, performing artists and entertainers, plays, and reading.
Feasting was a big deal in the Middle Ages. Feasts were held during celebrations,
festivals, and holidays. Most people in Europe during this time were estimated to have eight
weeks in every year off from work during the holidays, many that included festivals.
Religious festivals included miracle plays and feasts. The Midsummer Solstice, held on June
23, was celebrated in most towns. It was also known as the feast of the Eve of St. John.
Christmas was also celebrated along with St.Stwithsun’s Day, which marked the richness of
the harvest.
The games played in this time were the beginning of some games we still play
today.Games included charades, follow the leader, and marbles. Bowling, prisoner’s base,
blind man’s bluff, checkers, backgammon, mancala, fishing, hunting, hawking, card games,
and cricket were also very common.Reading was another enjoyment to the medieval society.
Many could not read, so others would read to them.
There were many different types of sports in the Middle Ages. Most of these were
designed to increase skills and fitness of fighting men. Some popular sports included archery,
skittles (an ancestor of modern ten-pin bowling), colf (the ancestor of golf and a sport for the
nobles), gameball (simple football), hammer-throwing, hurling or shinty (a game similar to
hockey), horseshoes, jousting at tournaments, stoolball (an ancestor of cricket), and
wrestling. There were many different types of sports in the Middle Ages. Most of these were
designed to increase skills and fitness of fighting men. Some popular sports included archery,
skittles (an ancestor of modern ten-pin bowling), colf (the ancestor of golf and a sport for the
nobles), gameball (simple football), hammer-throwing, hurling or shinty (a game similar to
hockey), horseshoes, jousting at tournaments, stoolball (an ancestor of cricket), and
wrestling.
Many sports were accompanied by gambling for entertainment, which was common at
jousting tournaments. Knights would incorporate training in recreation, by performing
gymnastics and running foot races. Like many medieval sports, rowing was a work activity
that could be turned into a competition. These competitions were called regattas. A game
similar to this and jousting was water jousting. Boats rowed toward one another like the
horses did in a tournament and one person in each boat with a wooden lance and attempted to
knock their enemy out of the boat. A sport called rounders was played by everyone in
medieval England. It is generally considered the ancestor of modern baseball. Running
contests were held at festivals and had different age groups for women, children, and old
men. The distances could be as short as four hundred feet or as long as ten thousand feet.
Stone lifting and putting was still popular from the Greek Olympics. Most often, the person
who lifts the heaviest weight is the winner. Swimming in the public baths or other bodies of
water became a sport to many people.
Some would play a game called water wrestling where each player would try to hold the
opponent under water until he gave up. Swimmers also competed over distances, swimming
out from shore to a marked point and back. Diving competitions were conducted by seeing
who could dive the farthest for depth and seeing who could remain under water the longest.
The primary weapons for medieval European warfare were swords. If a knight was named
his sword, he kept it with him all the time. Sword fights were a common part of tournaments.
Tennis began in France as a handball game, but “real” tennis was played with a racquet and
played only by the wealthy.
A tournament was a battle in which prisoners were taken and put into a situation similar
to one on the battlefield. As time passed, tournaments became more entertaining rather than
practice wars, with betting, dancing, and music. Jousting, a popular England sport became
extremely popular during the fourteenth century. The one-to-one combat with a variety of
weapons could be carried out on horseback or foot. Jousts were usually at the beginning of
the tournament.
Music was important in medieval life and especially popular during the time of
celebration and festivities. Some instruments included violins, drums, harps, recorders,
trumpets, whistles, bells, lutes, organs, citoles, psalteries, flutes, and horns. Minstrels
(servants first employed as a castle or court musician) and jugglers were often a part of
traveling bands and players. Medieval music mainly consisted of the music of the church.
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Troubadours (a travelling musician) , Trouveres
and Minstrels were the poets and musicians that influenced the Middle Ages by singing
songs of courtly love (nobly expressing love and admiration). Music was uplifting especially
at weddings, birthdays, and other parties. On Mayday, dancers would dance to prepared,
high- pitched music because they believed that by doing this, the hibernating spirits would be
awakened that spring had arrived. At Christmas, the sound of bells brought the good news of
Jesus’ birth. People during this time period also liked to listen to music while they ate. They
thought that the music was not just nice to listen to, but that it helped with the digestion of
food. All medieval music was performed in unison. The notes were usually the same length
and song. Harmonies were slowly introduced during this time and were a method of music
notation by the twelfth century.