Mohammed the Persian

I got to thinking, What did the average peasant do for fun ? What was the entertainment scene like ?

I'm sure they wouldn't have much options so what about the upper class and the aristocrats ?

spellbanisher

I'd imagine it'd be dancing, drinking, story-telling, and getting freaky.

Mosquito

public executions and punishments were also popular shows

Louise C

In 'Life in a Medieval Village' Frances and Joseph Gies write:

'Many of the games enjoyed by the villagers were played alike by children, adolescents, and adults, and endured into modern times: blind man's buff, prisoner's base, bowling. Young and old played checkers, chess, backgammon, and most popular of all, dice. sports included football, wrestling, swimming, fishing, archery, and a form of tennis played with hand coverings instead of rackets. The Luttrell Psalter (c 1340) portrays a number of mysterious games involving sticks and balls and apparatus of various kinds, remote ancestors of modern team sports. Bull-baiting and cockfighting were popular spectator sports.'

The upper classes enjoyed these sports and games too, and they also liked to go hunting, and hawking.

Music and dancing were popular too. In 'Medieval Lives' Terry Jones writes that peasant houses that have been excavated have been found to contain musical instruments. Wealthy people would have professional musicians to entertain them. In 'Pleasures and Pastimes in Medieval England' Compton Reeves writes:

'Dancing at the amateur level was ordinarily round-dancing or processional, and was of ancient lineage. Carols were the principal form of secular music in medieval England, and they are the musical core of the entertaining chain- or carol-dance. The carol-dance was usually performed by a circle of dancers, with hands clasped or arms linked, who would take a few steps to the left as their leader, normally standing in the middle of the circle, sang a stanza of a song. The dancers then marked time with treading steps as all sang the chorus (or burden). This basic dance could be varied in many ways, from dancing in line to miming to story of the carol, and the carols might be stories about heroism, romance, or religion. For the most part, carols seem to have been joyful. Carolling could be done outdoors, and the churchyard was a favourite venue or indoors in a lordly hall.

The carol-dance was not the limit of dancing activity. The basse dance was performed on the ground without springing into the air, and was a late medieval refinement of the processional dance or open carol-dance. The pavane was a fast-moving variation on the basse dance, and called for displays of many manners of steps and elaborate costumes. Additionally, display dancing became fashionable in late medieval courtly circles after its importation from Italy and Burgundy.'

There was drama as well. Compton Reeves writes:

'Dramatic performances in medieval England were in character almost exclusively religious, and are normally categorised as miracle, mystery, or morality plays. Stories from the scriptures and teachings of the Church presented as plays were greatly enjoyed. When these plays were performed by members of 'misteries' that is trade or craft guilds, they were called mystery plays, and when they were performed by professional or amateur actors who were not representing any trade or craft guild, the plays were termed miracle plays.

Miracle plays were first presented individually as early as the twelfth century, and were normally in Latin and performed by clerics. Plays in english performed by the laity came later. In time, sponsorship by guilds and series of plays resulted in the cycles of mystery plays associated with towns such as Chester, where they first appeared in the third quater of the thirteenth century.'

There were also tournaments. Compton Reeves writes:

'Tournament is a word familiarly used in a general way for games of knightly skill, but the word also had the more restricted meaning of a meeting of two teams of knights on a designated field of combat - often miles of varying terrain - in a free-for-all or melee. It was rather like scheduling a small war for sport, and was highly dangerous. The excitement of an early tournament would come from booty at the end of the day.

The early form of tournament ws so hazardous, in fact, that it gradually diminished in popularity, but as it passed from the scene, the word 'tournament' came to be used for all sorts of knightly combat. Single combats of one knight against another were called 'jousts' to clarify another term.'

Petyo

I guess the fear from the Church made mastrubation way more exciting back then..

Maundu

I think the year market also attracked entertainment such as singers, acrobats etc.. I think there the European of fun fair has originated

spellbanisher

Traveling Mystery Plays!

Everyman!

Maundu

The knights which took part in these tournements were often divided into groups of geographical order.
The objective of the tournement was to capture the enemies horse, armour etc. and hold it for ransom.
Pretty much everything was allowed in these tournements.. such as galloping through a poor peasents field or setting fire to a farm in which an enemy knight was hiding.

I think it was this type of noble violence that the church wished to outlaw, by means of the peace and truce of God movements.

But I am sidetracking here..

clement

I don't think people were afraid of this. Most sexual "sins" were not punished (sodomy -meaning homosexuality and bestiality were officially condemned but there is often a big difference between a legal norm and practice. Even rape were not always punished). Moreover before the 13th century, the priests themselves were quite relaxed with sexual issues, some of them even participating. Things changed after with the more austere mendicant orders but overall, in medieval society, sex was far from being prohibited.

The only thing was that adult men were often afraid that the youngsters might take their place in the village so they often tried to divide young teenage boys and girls in order to delay marriages (because to marry was to enter public life). Prostitution, on the other hand, was quite well accepted (as it diverted those young people) and even the Church allowed it in order to control it better. As often in traditional societies, female sexuality was much less free.

Fights were also popular at that time. Many young boys organized themselves into some sort of mobs and they often fought against groups from other villages. These games were violent. At that time, people were accustomed to injuries and death (every one had a dead brother or sister) so I think that even deaths were not that rare.

Crystal Rainbow

Gambling was a pastime even back then when the poor played dice and other folk just story tell. If you were rich the tourney was quite the happening thing.