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Ask HN: Did people in the middle ages re-enact ancient times?

7 points by krishadi ↗ HN
I just went to a festival in Northern Italy, which was set to mimic the middles ages. The food, cutlery (or, the lack of it), entertainment, were all set to match the times. I've been to many events/restaurants around Europe that are set to re enact the middle ages.

Is this a new phenomenon of re enacting a different period in time? Or, did people in the middle ages re enact the ancient times?

12 comments

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mattbgates
It is very likely that plays were performed by traveling minstrels who had knowledge based on Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, as those stories would've been known and passed down, such as portraying Alexander the Great, Odyssey, and the Trojan Wars.
krishadi
This seems to be a method of knowledge transfer from generation to generation.

Did they also re-live the experience?

mattbgates
Oral tradition was past down from generation to generation, but then entertainers/performers would spread that knowledge. Children likely enjoyed those shows. They must've been as creative as a few props to bring about the imagination.
mikewarot
You left out the Spanish Inquisition, and all the other oppression of free thought and speech that characterized the dark ages.

Anything that hinted of the church and Jesus not being the ultimate source of truth was brutally suppressed.

ZunarJ5
Literally, this was the Renaissance.
krishadi
Do you mean to say that this phenomenon was what made renaissance?
ZunarJ5
In very reductionist terms, yes.
farseer
Limited to revival of classic Greek and Roman knowledge of-course. Not ancient Egypt, Hebrew, Mesopotamian, Chinese or Persian. I guess it could be the location, a European rebirth would mimic its own elden empires, not those of others.
nivertech
I don't know if they did, but back then, people revered anything ancient

They believed that the older something was, the more "truthful" it must be. E.g., Hellenes mistakenly regarded Jews as a people with the most ancient books and religion[2], and therefore, as being true

I think it's somewhat similar to how Earthlings might react if we were to encounter an older alien civilization

This somewhat resembles the Lindy Effect on an intuitive level

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

[2] back then they didn't knew about Sumerians and Akkadians