Festivals In Europe

Functions of festivals in Early Modern Europe
Essay written by
‘What were the functions of popular festivals, etc. in Early Modern Europe? And why
did the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical seek to control or suppress them?’
In Early Modern Europe festivals were the setting for heroes and their stories, to be
celebrated by the populace. They posed a change from their everyday life. In those days
people lived in remembrance of one festival and in expectance of the next. Different
kinds of festivals were celebrated in different ways. There were festivals that marked an
individual occasion and weren’t part of the festival calendar, like family festivals such as
weddings and christenings. Some took place at the same time every year and were for
everyone, like community festivals like the different saints’ days. Pilgrimages took place
all year round. Annuals festivals like Christmas and Midsummer always took place on
the same day every year.

In those days the average village in Western Europe celebrated at least 17 festivals
annually, not counting family occasions and saints’ days. Some festivals, such as
Carnival, lasted several days or sometimes even several weeks. In the Netherlands
Carnival started every year at the 11th of November (St. Martin) and culminated in a big
festival of ‘Dranck, pleijsier ende vrouwen’ (Drink, fun and women) at the end of the
Carnival period, preceding the period of Lent.
Festivals were meant to take the minds of the people off their everyday life , off the hard
times and their work. Everyday life in Early Modern Europe was filled with rituals, both
religious and secular. Songs and stories played an important role in their lives, although
they sometimes adjusted the details of the legends and stories to fit the way they thought
a certain festival should take place.
Popular culture was mixed with ecclesiastical culture in many ways. The story of St. John
the Baptist is a good example of this. The ancient ritual of bathing and lighting fires
during Midsummer’s Eve was a remnant of a ritual from the pre-Christian period. Fire
and water, symbols of purification, could be seen as the tools of St. John the Baptist, and
therefore a combination of the two elements of popular and ecclesiastical culture was
obvious. It looks as if the Medieval Church took over the festival and made it theirs. The
same thing happened to the Midwinter Festival, which became linked with the birth of
Christ, on 25 December. There are many more examples to be found, such as the
connection between St. Martin and geese caused by the fact that the St. Martins Day (11
November) coincided with the period during which the people used to kill their geese in
the period preceding the Christian period.

Carnival plays a special role in popular culture in Early Modern Europe. It is a great
example of a festival of images and texts. It was a popular festival, taking on different
forms in different regions of Europe. Aside from regional variations, these differences
were also caused by factors such as the climate, the political situation and the economical
situation in an area.

On a whole Carnival started in late December or early January and reached its peak upon
approaching Lent. The actual feast, taking place at the end of the festive period, could
take days and would usually involve large quantities of food and drinks. The festival took
place in the open air in the centre of a town or city. Within a region, the way Carnival
was celebrated varied from town to town.
The festival was a play, with the streets as a stage and the people as actors and spectators.

They often depicted everyday life scenes and made fun of them. Informal events took
place throughout the Carnival period. There was massive eating and drinking, as a way of
‘stocking up’ for Lent. People sang and danced in the streets, using the special songs of
Carnival, and people wore masks and fancy-dress. There was verbal aggression, insults
were exchanged and satirical verses were sung. More formally structures events were
concentrated in the last days of the Carnival period. These events took places in the
central squares and were often organised by clubs or fraternities.
The main theme during Carnival was usually ‘The World Upside Down’. Situations got
turned around. It was an enactment of the world turned upside down. Men dressed up as
women, women dressed up as men, the rich traded places with the poor, etc. There was
physical