Winters in the Middle Ages were bitter, hard and cold. Christmas festivities, which extended from early December to the beginning of February, provided much needed respite. Feast days in churches spilled out into civic processions into the palaces and great halls of the aristocracy; places of banquets. Trade guilds put on their own feasts and displays, and food was given to the poor. Cooks and other household servants spent months in elaborate preparation of food and drink. Tableware was often as spectacular as the provision of victuals. Christmas was a time for indoor warmth – of games, interludes and music.
Many of the Christmas practices of feasting feature in the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This sumptuously descriptive poem, with its disguises and surprises, its games, its entertainments and its interpretative puzzles, will form a continuous thread throughout the day as we explore the practice and performance of Christmas feasting through historical documents, poetry, cultural history, music and popular pastimes.
Please note: this event will close to enrolments at 23:59 UTC on 27 November 2024.