Entertainment and leisure for children in medieval Europe


In the folk festivals – for example, noisy processions of mummers – children took part. But there were boys and girls and their children’s games and entertainment, which are partly preserved to this day. The girls played with dolls. The boys preferred mobile games, especially the game of knights and squires. So they prepared themselves for the future chivalric tournaments. He also liked being puppeteers in the game with mechanical wooden soldiers. Tugging at the strings, passed through the figures, the players made them walk amusingly, swinging their swords.

I was fascinated by the children’s playful and playful hide-and-seek game. The one who fell out with his eyes closed, closed his head with a hood backwards. Other players jokingly beat him with their hoods, deftly avoiding it so that he did not catch them.

Children also played in the “Beetle”. One of the players was blindfolded to his knees and was holding his hands behind his back. Others slapped him on the back until he guessed who it was.

Children played in shuttlecock – the progenitor of badminton. The shuttlecock served as a cork with fixed feathers.

Of course, the satisfaction brought the children a visit to puppet shows.


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Entertainment and leisure for children in medieval Europe