Religious Feasts Research Articles

『儀式について』にみるビザンツ皇帝と宗教儀式

The purpose of this study is to research the description of the famous ceremonial book, "De ceremoniis" which was compiled in the 10th century by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. It reveals an important roll of the religious processions in the middle Byzantine period. The ceremonies and the churches in Constantinople are divided in the two remarkable groups; 1.the old urbane basilicas (ex. Hagia Sophia) with the great religious feasts, supported by the conservativeness of the society. 2.the new palace-churches (ex. "Nea" the New Church) with the less important memorial feasts of the saints, created by the real political needs.

Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July (review)

Reviewed by: Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July Joseph Sciorra Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July. 2001. By Tony De Nonno. 57 min. Video format, color. (De Nonno Productions, Brooklyn, N.Y.) Italian Americans have developed a mythic narrative that chronicles their triumph over harrowing deprivation, economic exploitation, and ethnic discrimination, as well as their ascent into middle- and upper-middle-class success, troubled only by continued depictions of the mafia in cinema and television. This uncritical and linear account of self-resolve, family cohesion, and religious conviction ending in the boardrooms and suburbia of white America involves a significant amount of memory loss and obfuscation of the historical record. During the past twenty-five years, scholars and artists have begun to critique and dismantle "common-sense" histories and assumptions by exploring topics such as the larger global Italian diasporic experience, Italian American involvement in labor struggles and radical left politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, their support of fascism during the 1920s and1930s, especially among ethnic elites, patriarchal violence and intergenerational conflict, and the privileges of whiteness in a racist society. Despite such research, the ideology of this master narrative permeates Tony De Nonno's terribly flawed documentary Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July. This poorly scripted video is a form of ethnic boosterism, soaked in nostalgic yearnings for community. Riddled with factual errors, the video presents a continuous, unbroken link spanning a millennium and a half between the late Roman Empire and contemporary Brooklyn, a glorified folk tradition unencumbered by history. The Italian American experience is depicted as unaltered and timeless, and the specific Brooklyn community is portrayed as adhering to a centuries-old festival tradition without any significant changes. The video's subject is the annual religious feast in honor of St. Paulinus of Nola (352-431) held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one in a constellation of related celebrations historically staged in New York City and the surrounding area. The feast consists of approximately 125 able-bodied men known collectively as the paranza (crew) lifting and carrying a multistoried, tapering tower known as a giglio (lily) and a boat structure through neighborhood streets. The feast is said to be a reenactment of a sacred narrative recounting townspeople waving lilies to welcome home their manumitted bishop Paulinus. The feast has its roots in the town of Nola, located some fifteen miles from Naples, where men carry eight gigli and a boat. The one-hour video is divided into a series of episodes titled "The Paranza," "San Paolino di Nola," "The Master Builders," "The Artists," "The Capo Paranzas," "La Musica," "La Questua," "La Madonna," "The Women," and "The Children." I should note as a disclaimer that the director telephoned me in the earlier stages of his project, hoping to contract me to provide contacts [End Page 459] and materials I had accumulated during my research of the feast. I declined, but did tell him about four historic films from Italy and Brooklyn dating from 1922 to 1956 that I had uncovered and deposited in the Smithsonian Institute's Human Studies Film Archives during the mid-1980s, which were ultimately used in the video. The video is plagued by a series of inaccuracies that, although sometimes "minor," speak to the poor quality of the video's research. For example, Nola is referred to variously as a "village," a "town," and a "city" in the video. The original structure of the Brooklyn church that sponsors the feast was not demolished in the early 1950s as stated in the film, but around 1919; the second structure was destroyed in 1947. Antonio Barricelli was not a capo paranza (leader of the lifters), but the president of the Società di Mutuo Soccorso San Paolino di Nola, the original lay association that organized the feast. The current state of giglio artistry in New York also is seriously misrepresented. Donato Mancini, a Detroit-born, studio-trained visual artist who was living in the neighborhood at the time of the filming and briefly contributed his skills to the creation of the tower's papier-mâché façade, is depicted as a long-standing community member and neighborhood "artisan." In the film narrative, De Nonno presents the artistic...

The 1912–13 Balkan Wars and the Siege of Edirne

Depending on the angle of view, the first and second Balkan1 wars of 1912–13 have been considered either as the culmination of a freedom struggle2 for the Christian nations of south-eastern Europe ...

Justicia y piedad en la España moderna. Comportamientos religiosos de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid

The ministers of the High Justice Court of Valladolid were absorbed in the sacred atmosphere of the ancien regime , sharing the same beliefs which were often very close to superstition, of the so-called evil «popular religiousness». However, as we show in this study which focuses on the 17th Century, the piety of the Chancellery was shown in various ways and had other connotations as well as the religious ones as such. Their own devotion, their participation in urban religious feasts and in the exequies of their members were also a suitable scene, in view of the role played by ceremonial and sacred eventes in that society, in order to strengthen its image and hence, that of the Monarchy.

Esna's Triple New Year

The sole structure still standing of temple domain dedicated to god Khnum at Esna or Latopolis, a town located about 50 km south of Thebes on west bank of Nile, is a well preserved Roman-period hypostyle hall. Its various parts date roughly to two centuries lasting from about mid-first century C.E. to about mid-third century C.E. Its back wall is preserved facade of a Ptolemaic temple of which little else now remains. Perhaps most informative text inscribed on walls of hypostyle hall is a festal calendar listing religious feasts for many days of calendar year. The calendar's most intriguing feature is that designation wp rnpt opener of year, or New Year's Day, appears next to no less than three calendar dates, namely (1) I iht 1, (2) I iht 9, and (3) II smw 26. The problem of Esna's triple year has been much debated, with widely diverging results. The aim of this paper is to propose a solution. It may be stated here briefly that three new will be identified as follows: (1) I iht 1 as Day 1 of 365-day civil calendar; (2) I iht 9 as prt spdt the coming forth of spdt? that is, rising of star Sirius, which is called Sothis in Greco-Egyptian (from Egyptian spdt); and (3) II smw 26 as birthday of Marcus Aurelius.1 Only one of three new was a New Year's Day in full sense of term, namely one in identification (1). I iht 1 was Day 1 of so-called civil calendar. The civil calendar has 12 months of 30 days plus five extra days, for a total of 365 days. It was dominant calendar of daily life throughout ancient Egyptian history. Due to lack of leap years, civil year shifts slowly in relation to solar year. Esna's other two years were never years in strict, calendrical sense. Neither of two was ever Day 1 of a calendar. Rather, as yearly occurrences, both must have been viewed as symbolizing year as an ever returning cycle. As for identification (2), rising of Sirius can be defined as first rising of Sirius from below eastern horizon just before sunrise after Sirius has been invisible for a couple of months. But there was never such a thing as a Sirius calendar with Sirius years and Sirius months. As for identification (3), celebration of emperor's birthday not only paid homage to emperor but also signified that yet another year had passed.2

UNRECORDED MIDDLE ENGLISH VERSE TEXTS IN A CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL LIBRARY MANUSCRIPT

Canterbury Cathedral Library, MS Add. 46 is a collection of paper leaves, now numbered 1-9. Although they have been virtually unstudied,1 these leaves are of some interest to the student of Middle English since they provide previously unrecorded versions of a number of Middle English verse texts. From the evidence of both their size and hands these leaves appear to have formed parts of two different manuscripts. Four bifolia (leaves 2, 3, 5, 7) and three single leaves (1, 4, 6) are evidently survivals from one manuscript and our initial comments below are confined to these. Two other leaves, probably originally a bifolium (8, 9), are codicologically distinct and will be discussed in section v below.All the leaves in the Canterbury manuscript arc in some degree fragmentary, particularly the bifolia, all of which have lost the greater part of one of their conjugates; all are now separately mounted. The separate leaves of the bifolia arc approximately 115 x130 mm.; no watermarks are visible; the texts are unruled and unbounded. The leaves are copied in probably two different current hands, of the late fifteenth century.Any attempt at description of the original structure of the manuscript from which these leaves come is complicated by the fact that each leaf, whether singleton or bifolium, has been given a single number. Accordingly we have differentiated the leaves of each bifolium by assigning a folio number to the first leaf, and the same number followed by an asterisk to its conjugate. The order of the leaves can be partly established through the sequence of the longest text, 'Gregory's Trental'. If we assume that its beginning marks the beginning of a quite, then the sequence of the first five leaves and the conjugates of the first four of these can be established as set out below. It seems likely that the conjugate of fol. 1 (fol. 1*) has been lost, but this is not certain. It seems likely that fols 6 and 4 are conjugate, but again, this is not certain. Hence the surviving leaves could suggest at least two possibilities in terms of quire structure: (i) an original quire of twelve leaves, of which one conjugate, fol. 1*, has been lost; (ii) an original quire of ten leaves, together with two singletons, possibly from another quire. Further hypothetical reconstructions are possible, but unrewarding given the paucity of the surviving evidence. Because the content of fols 4 and 6 seems self-contained it is not possible to place them in order in relation to the other leaves. The contents arc distributed as follows (commas are used to mark off breaks between recto and verso):IThe longest text in the Canterbury manuscript is a version of 'St Gregory's Trental', a popular exemplary narrative which recounts the salvation of Pope Gregory's mother through the saying of a 'trental' of thirty masses over the ten chief religious feasts. This occupies five of the nine leaves, most of the four bifolia and one singleton; in order: 2, 5,7, 3, 1. The text is copied throughout in single columns, unruled and unbounded. In the following transcription, as throughout, contractions have been silently expanded, with the exception of the ampersand; a single period (.) indicates an indecipherable or unrecoverable letter within a line; a spaced series of such periods within a line indicates a sequence of such letters; a series of such periods at the beginning or end of the line indicates that an undetermined number of letters or words have been lost.IMEV differentiates several versions of 'St Gregory's Trental' in a total of ten manuscripts, under numbers 83, 1653, and 3184.2 The grounds for distinguishing these entries are not clear. All versions are in couplets, but vary in length from 240 to 350 lines. The earliest discussion of this text, by Albert Kaufman, sought to establish two versions (A and B), but the subsequent work of R. K. Root led him to suggest that 'Kaufmann's conclusions must be revised'. He added this caveat:but until more MSS. …

Village bells: sound and meaning in the 19th-century French countryside

In the French canton of Brienne in November 1799, local authorities were scandalized when a crowd of girls broke through the doors of the church and rang the bells in order to mark the festival of St. Catherine. Religious use of the bells was forbidden by law, but the villagers boldly insisted on their right to celebrate with peals the feast of a beloved saint. So begins Village Bells, Alain Corbin's exploration of the auditory landscape of nineteenth-century France, a story of lost sensory experiences and forgotten passions. In the nineteenth century, these instruments were symbols of their towns and objects of both ecclesiastic and civic pride. Bell-ringing served practical purposes of communication, marking both religious and secular time, as well as calling citizens to pray, assemble, take arms, or beware of danger. As Corbin shows, the bells also reflected the social, political, and religious struggles of the time. To control the bells was to control the symbolic order, rhythm, and loyalties of French village and country life. Using church archives and local documents, Corbin forges a unique history of the role of bells from the aftermath of the Revolution to the dawn of the twentieth century. He charts how the First Republic (1792-1804) moved toward a more secular society, turning many bells into coins and cannonballs and seizing others as property of the state. A gradual return to the religious use of bells occurred in the nineteenth century, even as their new secular roles were maintained. Corbin describes the battles over the marking of religious versus secular time, as calls to prayer, the celebration of religious feasts, and the marking of rites of passage-baptism, marriage, and death-competed with tolls indicating the passing hours or marking assemblies, elections, or republican holidays. Thoroughly documented and recounted with intriguing narratives, Village Bells provides an original approach to nineteenth-century French cultural, social, and political history. As Corbin notes, the bells are no longer essential to our lives-their qualitative, sacred time and space replaced by the quantitative, secular measures of the clock-but by understanding their lost symbolic and practical importance we open a window onto the age in which they rang.

Christianity and paganism in the fourth to eighth centuries

The slaughter of animals for religious feasts, the tinkling of bells to ward off evil during holy rites, the custom of dancing in religious services-these and many other pagan practices persisted in the Christian church for hundreds of years after Constantine proclaimed Christianity the one official religion of Rome. In this book, Ramsay MacMullen investigates the transition from paganism to Christianity between the fourth and eighth centuries. He reassesses the triumph of Christianity, contending that it was neither tidy nor quick, and he shows that the two religious systems were both vital during an interactive period that lasted far longer than historians have previously believed. MacMullen explores the influences of paganism and Christianity upon each other. In a rich discussion of the different strengths of the two systems, he demonstrates that pagan beliefs were not eclipsed or displaced by Christianity but persisted or were transformed. The victory of the Christian church, he explains, was one not of obliteration but of widening embrace and assimilation. This fascinating book also includes new material on the Christian persecution of pagans over the centuries through methods that ranged from fines to crucifixion; the mixture of motives in conversion; the stubbornness of pagan resistance; the difficulty of satisfying the demands and expectations of new converts; and the degree of assimilation of Christianity to paganism.

Le Chant d'Ixcozauhqui, hymne sacré des anciens Mexicains

Attempt at an interpretation of an ancient sacred Mexican Hymn : The Ixcozauhqui's Song The analysis of an ancient sacred Mexican Hymn dedicated to Ixcozauhqui, the God of Fire, has allowed us to learn three major lessons. First of all, this Song belongs to one of the main liturgical points of a religious feast called "Izcalli". Then, we have noticed that many common features between the Soothsayer interceding during this feast and the Siberian Shamans. Finally, we have been able to verify that the beliefs in use in Mexico City were shared by other populations living on the Meso-American territory, especially the Mayas, thus testifying to the reality and liveliness of a genuine cultural common heritage in this wide area.

L'astronomie égyptienne

In Egypt, stars and planets were considered as gods and astronomy was practiced by priests in the temples. It was in an outburst of religious fervor that these priests-astronomers were observing the heavenly bodies, the motions of which perfectly measured the time of men. Thus, the order of the universe was a temporal one and they obser¬ ved the sun to fix the hours of the day and the stars to fix the schedule of the night ritual. The latter were preferentially zodiacal stars, the 36 decans. The first temporal cycle was that of the sun, which was Khepri, the sun appearing, in the morning, Râ, in the middle of the day, with all the power of its light and finally Atum, in the evening. A cycle similar to the fate of man. But the most important time cycle of Egyptian astronomy was that of the heliacal rising of Sirius, the goddess Hathor, the Lady of Denderah, with a yearly period of exactly 365,25 days, during all the history of Ancient Egypt. Thus, Egyptian astronomers built a calendar of 365 days, which was never corrected, and in which the heliac rising was evidently shifted at the rate of one day every four years. The year had twelve months of thirty days and a holy period of five days. Egyptian priests had set up this calendar to set the dates of the religious feasts and observed stars to fix the hours of the night. The orientation of the monuments, principally the pyramids, was also a task of Egyptian astronomy. In the Ptolemaic epoch, the temple of Denderah was adorned by the great famous zodiac, presently in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It worked as an universal julian calendar, as well as for astrological ends.

RESSOURCES GENETIQUES ANIMALES DU CAMEROUN

SUMMARYThe authors presented in this article a well documented review of the local cattle, sheep and goat populations in relation to the possibility of conservation planning. While the zebu and zebulike cattle populations are in the majority, it is possibly the Bos taurus populations that are of particular interest as they represent only about 1 % of the cattle population but are reputed to be trypanotolerant. Sheep and goats are kept in small family units (approximately 5 animals) mainly for slaughter purposes on special occasions (national and religious feasts) and for cash flow purposes. A short presentation of the prevailing local breed selection schemes and the introduction of non-indigenous genetic material, mainly for cross breeding purposes are also given.

Female voices of aggression in Tonga

Tonga, a Polynesian society, is characterized by a social order and by Christian beliefs that work to constrain aggressive action and conflict. Violence does take place in Tonga but there is active discouragement of any behavior that may be socially disruptive. Tongan women in particular are allowed only a limited number of contexts in which acceptable expression of aggression can take place. In response, Tongan women rely on rather covert forms of aggression in processes of competition and conflict. A speech given during an inter-denominational religious feast controlled by the women of one village provides an example of a woman aggressively empowering herself through discourse clothed within the language of Tongan charity and Christian love.

A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: The Expression of Grief and Joy in Israelite Religion

Anthropologists have long known that different cultures give expression to their symbol systems through external mediums such as food and clothing, but they have not recognized as readily that cultures also mold emotional life to fit particular patterns of meaning. This prejudice against the role of behaviors in shaping the emotional and cognitive life is especially strong in the study of religion. Gary Anderson's study reveals that, in the Israelite culture (and later, the Jewish culture), and as emotional experiences have visible behavioral components for both the individual and the community at large. The best evidence of this can be found in rabbinical texts that prescribe behaviors appropriate to and determine when this ritual state supersedes that of mourning. For example, on religious feast days, is forbidden and is prescribed. Mourning cannot resume until after the festival. The terms mourning and joy so employed do not refer to simple emotional states, but rather constitute a discrete set of ritual behaviors. In fact, the types of discrete behaviors that constitute (eating, drinking, festal song, anointing with oil, festive attire, sexual relations) all have exact anti-types in the ritual of (fasting, dirges, putting ashes on the head, rending one's garments or putting on sackcloth, sexual continence). Anderson shows that it is not only the rabbinical texts that use the terms mourning and joy in this way; rabbinic tradition is simply heir to a much older tradition, as witnessed in biblical and other ancient Near Eastern narratives such as the Gilgamesh Epic.

Espectáculo, texto y fiesta. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y el teatro de su tiempo (review)

Reviews165 Brooks' bibliography of primary and secondary sources is particularly impressive ; she has combed the Archivo de la Catedral and Archivo Municipal de Sevilla, Biblioteca Colombina y Capitular, Biblioteca Nacional; "Other Golden Age Sources" include chronicles, memoirs, texts, and manuals. Among scholarly publications she cites works of general history, dance history, histories of music, theater, and public celebrations, also theoretical and methodological treatises, encyclopedias and dictionaries. Finally, the volume contains twenty-eight tables and illustrations including reproductions of the seises, tarasca, gigantes, and savages, also drawings of traditional musical instruments. Only one fault detracts from this otherwise impeccable piece of scholarship . The volume is riddled with printing errors, some of them so serious as to impair reader comprehension: p. 5 "und" for "and"; 6 "proginal", "original"; 23 "envolving", "evolving"; "importand", "imported"; 24 "gesting", "jesting"; 28 "particulary", "particularly"; 49 "Apostels", "Apostles"; 50 "spectaculary", "spectacularly"; "volved", "evolved"; 52 "inindated", "inundated"; "Carthedral", Cathedral"; 55 "became", "came", etc. Brooks' monograph is an indispensable tool for students of Golden Age theater as well as for general theater historians. It shows what can be done if one searches the archives. What is needed now are comparable studies for other Spanish cities where we know religious feasts attracted similar though somewhat less glittering celebrations. Charlotte Stern Randolph-Macon Woman's College Espectáculo, texto y fiesta. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y el teatro de su tiempo. Edited by José Amezcua and Serafín González. México: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, 1990. Paper. 172 pp. This collection of thirteen essays constitutes a selection of the papers read by a number of Mexican scholars at a colloquium on the theater of the Golden Age held at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, on the fourth through the eighth of September, 1989, dates chosen to call attention to the three-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the death of Juan Ruiz de Alarc ón. The book is divided into three sections, the first containing four essays on Alarcón. The first (José Antonio Muciño Ruiz, "De la escena al texto ...") 166BCom, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Summer 1992) presents an original if debatable interpretation of La verdad sospechosa. It is stated that Alarcón's contemporaries would have seen the play in accord with the ethos of absolutist Spain: i.e., they would have focused on the relation of individuals to power, which in this case produces antagonism between the son Garcia (who lies to maintain his freedom and individuality) and the authoritative father, who expects his son to uphold the social obligations incumbent upon the mayorazgo of a noble family. This interpretation asks us to view and applaud Garcia as a kind of rebel against an oppressive social code. The second essay (Josefina Iturralde, "Juan Ruiz de Alarcón: un punto de vista critico ") makes a strong case for Alarcón as a social critic in a way his fellow dramatists were not. She calls attention to his unfavorable presentation of high and titled noblemen who treat women with ugly violence; his sympathy for women and advocacy of their right to defend themselves and choose their course in life; and the triumph, finally, so often in his dramas of the personal virtue of a simple hidalgo over the arrogance of the upper aristocracy. Helena Beristáin in "Un personaje alarconiano ..." employs Greimas's terminology and mode of analysis to demonstrate how the Marqués don Fadrique in Ganar amigos ultimately plays a central role in the tangled minor intrigues set in motion by other characters. Raymundo Ramos ("¿De quién es Juan Ruiz de Alarcón ...?") reviews once again the question of whether Alarcón is just Spanish or peculiarly Mexican, arriving at the conclusion that he was a "noble criollo" (an essay marred by occasional outright errors and the use of some outdated sources). For a number of readers the second section, "Manifestaciones teatrales en la Nueva España," will be of special interest because it offers some new information about dramas and fiestas in New Spain. Margo Glantz in "Las finezas de Sor Juana: Loa para El Divino Narciso" studies Sor Juana's elaborate comparison in the loa of the ancient Indian sacrifice of seeds...

The management of post-circumcision penile contractures performed outside the medical profession

Circumcision is a religious tradition in many countries, especially for Muslims, Jews and others. It is fundamental for Muslims in the Middle East area, and it is rare to find an uncircumcised male after the age of puberty. Unfortunately, most village people bring their children to religious feasts and other ceremonies to be circumcised by non-medical people who claim to be experienced. The procedure is performed with a complete lack of hygenic conditions and the use of primitive instruments. Naturally, the children return home to their villages without either follow-up arrangements or dressing instructions. They are, therefore, susceptible to infection and serious adhesions which can lead to penile contracture. Such a case is presented in this paper. We have analyzed 20 cases presented to our hospital with penile contracture over a period of 1 1/2 years. The surgical technique for the repair of these deformities is presented.

The Find from Rogozen and one Religious Feast in the Thracian Lands

The Find from Rogozen and one Religious Feast in the Thracian Lands

Istoriato‐majolikans funktion

Summary The Function of Istoriato‐Majolica Ceremonies of state were often celebrated with a banquet. A convention developed in Renaissance Italy whereby scholars and artists combined their talents to create an environment designed to give proper emphasis to the importance of such occasions. One way of achieving this was by decorating tables and buffets. The table‐decorations, called trionfi were generally made of sugar and the room itself would contain a display‐buffet, a credenza and possibly also abottgliera for drinking vessels. This occasional art is only sparingly documented in pictures and descriptions. Table‐decorations can sometime be deduced fairly accurately from pictures available, but illustrations of credenze are generally more difficult to interpret as they are elaborate and it is often impossible to tell whether the objects represented are majolica or made of pewter or silver. Istoriato‐majolica seems to have been made primarily for credenze but only a few sets are known to have been produced expressly for this purpose. Vasari mentions three: one, decorated with motifs from the Trojan War, was ordered by Guidobaldo 11 as a gift for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, another, showing the labours of Hercules, was ordered by the Emperor Charles V and the third, illustrating events in the life of Julius Caesar, was ordered by Philip II of Spain. The first two were made by Battista Franco of Urbino about 1545–51 and the third by Taddeo Zuccaro some twelve years later. A list of famous official banquets given during the 16th and 17th centuries shows that sets can be divided into four categories. Those connected with royal weddings and military victories rank highest, followed by those used for such annual events as royal hunts and religious feasts. If we combine this information with the way in which iconographie motifs are distributed among the remains of the so‐called Este‐Gonzaga Service, made for Isabella d'Este about 1525, and among the pieces of majolica in the collections of the National Museum in Stockholm and the Victoria & Albert Museum, some interesting points of correspondence emerge. They provide a basis for the hypothesis that certain courts possessed majolica which could be combined in different ways to produce credenze that were iconographically suitable for various occasions.

Sound, Sense, and Music in Greek Poetry

Until the fifth century B.C. all Greek poets made their poems for hearing not for seeing, for the ear and not for the eye. Poetry was social rather than private being usually sung, recited, or performed at religious ceremonies, festivals, feasts, or entertainments. Even when the Greeks began to read poetry privately for themselves – Euripides is the first known possessor of a private library – they read it aloud, not silently as we generally do. Silent reading of literature – as distinct from business documents – is not clearly attested until the fourth century A.D.

Fêtes et divertissements en occident durant le haut moyen âge

The author is trying to deepen our knowledge of medieval society through a study of its festivals and entertainments. In the middle ages, as in ancient times, a good physical condition was sought after. Various sports were practised and hunting was highly valued, be it hunting with hounds or hawking. After tiring physical exercise, people liked to relax and to dine well. One of the major occupations of upper class men in the middle ages consisted in feasting, but their preoccupations were sometimes of a more cultural nature. Their banquets provided a means for many to share in the pleasures of civilisation. In Merovingian and Carolingian times spectacular entertainments were not valued so highly as they had been in Roman times, but singing and dancing were enjoyed. People much appreciated jugglers and they played dice. Though Christianity had triumphed, traces of paganism still persisted. Pagan festivals were not unusual at the beginning of the middle ages even though they had been prohibited by the Church. Nevertheless, religious feasts established by the Church and celebrated with great solemnity were the climax of religious life.