How did people in the middle ages have fun?

Answer 1

1st Answerthey didn't, they just worked 2nd AnswerClearly there are people who believe no one in all of Europe had any fun between the years of 476 and 1453 AD, but there are records showing that there were at least some people who had quite a lot of fun, and, fortunately, there are no records to the contrary.

There were circuses, and the medieval circuses seem to have been just a continuation of what was going on since ancient times, with wild animals and acts of daring. They changed with time, because lions and elephants became unavailable, so they had to switch to bears and bulls.

There were plays that people went to. We know of the morality plays, mystery plays, and mystery plays that were sanctioned by the Church. We also know that there were plays called mummings, early on, which were not sanctioned, and probably not particularly holy. Later, there were manners plays, which were secular in nature.

There were tournaments, and these included jousts and all sorts of other events.

Medieval Europe is famous for having bards. Minstrels, troubadours, minnesingers, jongleurs and all sorts of other entertainers were in abundance, playing and singing for people lf all stations. In addition, there were jesters, referred to as licenced fools at the time, meaning they had licence to do whatever they wanted. And they ran roasts in which the king himself was the object of attention. We have a record of at least one jester being chastised for being to easy on the monarch, and therefore insufficiently funny.

Of course, people did not have to wait for professionals to have fun. Gerald of Wales has a description in his writings of Welsh people getting together and singing, not as the people of the rest of Europe do, in a single voice, but in many voices, as many as there are people. This is clearly an early form of improvised counterpoint, and could only have been done if the people, all of them, practiced a lot. But we are, after all, speaking of the Welsh.

We know of young ladies who loved to read or kept diaries, as Anna Comnena did. We know of young ladies who loved to write music. Eleanor of Aquitaine loved to flirt with kings and ran a Court of Love. Her grandfather is known to history as Duke William the Troubadour, and some of his songs still exist.

Bards were not the only people who travelled about having fun. One of the greatest books written in English is the Canterbury Tales, which is entirely about a bunch of people who decided to mix fun with their pilgrimage, and did it by telling stories to each other.

Later in the Middle Ages, people went to tournaments. Jousts were among the military arts performances of the time, but they were not the only ones. People also played other games. Tennis was certainly one of these.

Fairs could be fun. And fairs attracted minstrels, so we are back to music, but this time with pies and pastries.

People hunted, men and women, high and low, legally and not.

I have never read of a single medieval woman who loved to cook. Maybe there was never such a person, but I doubt it. A lot is lost to history.

Answer 2

Well, among other things, they played medieval form of football. They had fewer rules than we do today, and in the most chaotic form, called mob football, they seem not even to have cared much how many players the sides had, and whole villages could be involved, playing, cheering, or hiding out in fear of being brought into the action unwittingly.

Those boys who could got involved with Martial Arts. This included not only boys training to be knights, but others, the sons of yeomen and in some cases serfs.

There were other sports. Wealthy people played tennis. The game of battledore and shuttlecock (imagine Badminton for two without a net) was known from ancient times. Young people of wealthy families learned to hunt.

They had games that were not sports. Little children, even poor ones, played with dolls and hoops. Hoops only went out of fashion very recently. Some played chess or backgammon, and there were other Board Games involving dice.

They danced. Music was important in the Middle Ages, and there were people who played and sang all over. They joked and told stories.

Answer 3

In medieval Britain there was lots of entertainment: some of the thing everyone knows they did: Archery, Chess and watching jesters but also they played things like football and Golf.

Answer 4

Most adults enjoyed Pub outings, church was also not simply a place to pray but a place to communicate with others and gossip.

Answer 5

Hop Skotch. Ring around the rosies.