For
this post, I was inspired by a past Medieval Garden Intern, Stephan Hassam (http://lucmedievalgarden.blogspot.com/2012/01/medieval-winter.html) regarding the topic.
He recommended A Medieval Book of Seasons as a good resource to explain
the medieval winter, and since we are in the midst of some cold and snowy winter
days ourselves here in Chicago, I thought we could explore some customs and
beliefs relating to this season in the medieval age.
Winter
was the cold and bare season to be prepared for, since one couldn’t ship food
around countries like we do now, and grains and meat had to be stored up safely.
Salting butter, cheese and meats was the method available to preserve these
essential goods (smoking meat worked too). The women of this time “were faced
with the pressing problem of feeding their families”[1]
and supplemented ‘pottage’ (a kind of soup made from plants in medieval
gardens-like our own!) with meats and occasional eggs. Marie Collins and Virginia
Davis call winter, “that season when the work of the whole year could be
assessed by the comfort, or lack of it, which forethought, hard labor and good
or bad luck brought.”[2]
Imagine caring for your own subsistence and providing what would be needed
during the cold months, just with what nature provided-what would you have to
do?
Medieval
peoples had to “sow the winter’s wheat,” “preserve the health of animals over
the winter period” and make sure that their lands and people would be prepared
for the next planting and growing season. They also had to make and repair
their own tools and clothes.
If
all this sounds like a lot of work-don’t worry! They had fun back in those days
too. In his research on children’s culture, Nicholas Orme says that children
began their ‘winter’ fun on the 1st of November, when they could
play with animals’ bladders as balls (the mother of our modern football season?)[3] They
also had something like our Halloween, (6 times between November and the end of
December!) in which school boys, “dressed up as other people, sang songs and
asked for money or food” from people.
And,
of course, medieval Europeans had Christmas! This was the time when all classes
would gather together and feast and celebrate. Our guides, Collins and Davis, tell
us that Christmas was the “culmination of the season of plenty,” when medieval
peoples indulged and made good use of their autumn stores. To eat and drink they
had “good drink (wines), a good fire in the hall, brawn, pudding, sauce,
mustard, beef, mutton and pork, mince pies, goose,” just to name a few.[4]
Here, you can see medieval snowball fights:
Well,
stay warm as you enjoy our Chicago snow, maybe have some hot chocolate
afterwards, and I’ll look forward to seeing you here next week for more info on
gardens and the Middle Ages!
[1] Marie
Collins and Virginia Davis, “Winter,” A
Medieval Book of Seasons, (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), 121-135.
[2] Collins
and Davis, A Medieval Book of Seasons, 127.
[3]
Nicholas Orme, “The Culture of Children in Medieval England.” Past and Present 148 (1995): 48-88
[4]
Collins and Davis, A Medieval Book of
Seasons, 134.
