If you stretch the "Renaissance" back to the Middle Ages (1300s CE), Japan had them in the Renaissance itself.
1500s samurais popularized a pasttime of reenacting 1300s samurais. Except, being Japan, they had actual relics of the period in pristine condition.
I know someone in the SCA who portrays a 1500s samurai who portrays a 1300s samurai - giving him two periods of costume to play with, without "changing persona" at all. Kinda.
In the Middle Ages, people would hold festivals where they would dress up as King Arthur, El Cid, etc.
I don’t know about antiquity - did people dress up as mythological figures? The first plays were in Greece. Were there unscripted or ad hoc performances? I know what I’m going to ask AI next.
One could make the argument that you're off by about 125 years.
The 1839 Eglinton Tournament, was, in a way, a Renaissance Fair. It was a massive spectacle at the time, became enduringly famous (or infamous), and helped to kick-off the Romantic 19th century fascination with the medieval:
What interests me is why humans crave this one time in history (medieval?). It’s old enough to be different than now but not old enough to be like caveman times? Lower technology than now but not no technology. Do people in other countries that aren’t western civilization have similar cravings for that era or an era like it?
I had a friend group who participated in these fairs and Dagorhir (battle roleplay + foam padded weapons).
I never asked them why they participated. But from observation they had great joy in hand crafting costume, weapons, and armor, then utilizing their craft to roleplay and battle. Maybe there’s something to be said about ownership.
I’d also hesitate to guess that the medieval time period was a time when most of the technology at the time could be understood and actively participated by the average person while simultaneously supporting a growing! civilization.
Now the average person undesirably participates in a no or low growth job where they have no agency in their day to day.
I could probably wax poetic about how it is perceived as a time of innocence but high culture, before "technology and science" ruined stuff, a time that is immortalized in literature such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, and imitated today by Tolkien and Rowling alike.
It is especially interesting the way people tend to portray it drained of all religious overtones and entirely secular in nature, so that it is palatable to all comers, whether pagan, Christian or Jew.
TFA completely fails to mention the utter fandom that has grown alongside RenFaires: The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). People who are involved with the SCA basically have ongoing year-round RenFaires of various magnitudes. They develop entire in-world personas for themselves and they're assigned to Kingdoms and such, regionally. I'm not sure of the relationship between the two, but it's certainly symbiotic and RenFaires give a taste of what people can have, 24/7 in the SCA.
Medieval life is also attractive to traditionalists of a Christian nature, again -- before everything was "ruined" by science and modernism. We all love going back to the 16th century to see how it all went wrong, or the 11th century to see how it also went wrong!
What's more, plenty of other subcultures draw on medieval tropes, such as goths and filkers and whatever con-going fandom is up to these days. Any competent cosplayer can "seamlessly" meld into a medieval princess or wench just by designing the right costumes, and there are plenty of YouTubers and Etsy sellers ready to assist!
The SCA is way more fun than Ren Faires in my experience, but you typically have to play the part to experience the fun. So much so that Ren Faires seem boring to me these days.
The following info is dated to about 2004-2008:
I was fortunate enough to live in the Phoenix area, where the second largest gathering occurs in Feb, called the Estrella War (it since moved south to Florence). There are about 5k people that come out for the event, and a giant camp, marketplace, battlefield are all set up.
I spent my days fighting in giant battles, and the evenings were spent with friends and acquaintances. Nights brought parties, etc., but nothing beats falling asleep in a tent to the near-distant beating of drums and occasional bagpiper.
There are a variety of arts and sciences, crafts for children, and of course royal court proceedings. I had an absolute blast as a college student participating.
One day I hope to participate again and venture to Pennsylvania for Pennsic, the biggest which was about 16k folk when I played.
Who knows how the SCA is now; I've been out for so long with a shoulder injury. But I've considered getting back in for rapier combat which looked like a lot of fun but not nearly at the battle scale of hardsuit.
The wiki page to the Eglinton Festival notes succinctly: "Medieval culture was widely admired [in the 18th and 19th centuries] as an antidote to the modern enlightenment and industrial age."
This kicked into overdrive in the 20th, with the nascent genre of literary fantasy (and, later, video games,) showing people alternate worlds that are potent medicine against the enlightenment and industrial age -- for they contain little or nothing of the more dour aspects of 9th-17th century life.
If anything, it seems to me that most fantasy books and games like Dungeons and Dragons only make sense if you imagine they take place in the distant post-industrial future. They're too cozy; there is far too much healing magic and other tech; their economies are in many cases post-scarcity...
Speaking just about the Renaissance fair phenomenon in the USA, I think the main inspiration was the 1960s hippy obsession with Tolkien. Renaissance fairs were just a big outdoor costume party, were you could prance, toke, skinny dip, and buy/sell crafts. The more realistically named Oregon Country Fair was originally the Oregon Renaissance Faire.
As to why fans of the fantasy genre prefer medieval settings. I know it's a topic of discussion, but I don't know if there is a widely accepted explanation.
I went down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia about turkeys. Am I understanding it correctly in that turkeys went from South America to Europe then to North America?
So it's native to the new world, but not native to North America?
Anyway, 1500s is when they came to Europe, so maybe they did enjoy a good turkey leg...
Last weekend I went to my local ren faire. What a fantastic time. If you havent been to one before, definitely go. At mine, I'd say 70% of people are in a costume of some kind. 95% of the costumes were period correct or related.
I went in star trek blue. My favourite response a lady tells me that I'm violating the temporal prime directive for being in uniform. That was hilarious!
Note, I was literally the only person dressed in star trek lol.
Are they all just focused on sex, debauchery, lots of drinking today? I went to the one near Pasadena around a decade ago, maybe related to the OG faire, and there was so much sexual humor in the open air (like jokes shouted by storekeepers, and in the play being run) where I'd consider it an adult environment. It was a little disappointing because I was expecting something like a live-action museum, sort of like colonial williamburg in VA, but it was more like a party with expensive shit (I think a bottle of water was like $7?) being sold and drunk people stumbling. The highlight was just talking to a blacksmith who was making nails by hand who seemed serious about his craft.
I recently went to the New York one. It seemed to mainly be about cosplay (showing off your own cosplay, vendors selling cosplay-related supplies) and various kids activities. Although there certainly was drinking, and a car crash - probably caused by the drinking - very soon after the exit from the parking lot.
Coming from the experience in the PNW, 1960s onward, Renaissance fairs were never about serious historical reenacting. The sex/drugs/music were always focus, sort of like a Grateful Dead concert without the band.
What happened is that this county gathering has been happening for centuries. Since 1253 in truth. First it was called a gathering, then a cobble, and finally in 1582, the Franks took it over.
It was highly popularized as a French affair. The whimsical garb, the music, all something the stodgy English would have no part in. In fact, so stodge were they that it was forced outdoors, as none would rent to the Franks for this. Quite rude, in the rainy land of the Brits!
Eventually it became Frank-aire, just as other loan words from French, like concessionaire or millionaire, and then just Faire.
It's really the world's longest running annual gathering, where there's always a redhead in the same maid outfit. 538 years running, this year in fact! You can find it in the Guinness Book of World Records!
"By 1965, it moved to Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains"
Fun personal fact: Paramount Ranch was also the site of my high school's home cross country course (Westlake High School). During my high school days, the ranch's center was set up as a western town for filming Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. As a kid, you just accept all of that as normal, everyday things. "Doesn't everyone have Renaissance fairs and TV and movie sets in their town?" It took going to college thousands of miles away to realize and appreciate how delightfully weird Southern California can be.
I love how history.com, seeing that I am located in Germany, instantly redirected me to history.de, where this article is not present, so then dumped me on the homepage, because no one in Germany could bear to look at things not in German.
/s No I don't - over-localization is one of the banes of my existence.
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[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 47.8 ms ] threadhttps://www.amazon.com/Well-Met-Renaissance-American-Counter...
1500s samurais popularized a pasttime of reenacting 1300s samurais. Except, being Japan, they had actual relics of the period in pristine condition.
I know someone in the SCA who portrays a 1500s samurai who portrays a 1300s samurai - giving him two periods of costume to play with, without "changing persona" at all. Kinda.
I don’t know about antiquity - did people dress up as mythological figures? The first plays were in Greece. Were there unscripted or ad hoc performances? I know what I’m going to ask AI next.
The 1839 Eglinton Tournament, was, in a way, a Renaissance Fair. It was a massive spectacle at the time, became enduringly famous (or infamous), and helped to kick-off the Romantic 19th century fascination with the medieval:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eglinton_Tournament
I never asked them why they participated. But from observation they had great joy in hand crafting costume, weapons, and armor, then utilizing their craft to roleplay and battle. Maybe there’s something to be said about ownership.
I’d also hesitate to guess that the medieval time period was a time when most of the technology at the time could be understood and actively participated by the average person while simultaneously supporting a growing! civilization.
Now the average person undesirably participates in a no or low growth job where they have no agency in their day to day.
It is especially interesting the way people tend to portray it drained of all religious overtones and entirely secular in nature, so that it is palatable to all comers, whether pagan, Christian or Jew.
TFA completely fails to mention the utter fandom that has grown alongside RenFaires: The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). People who are involved with the SCA basically have ongoing year-round RenFaires of various magnitudes. They develop entire in-world personas for themselves and they're assigned to Kingdoms and such, regionally. I'm not sure of the relationship between the two, but it's certainly symbiotic and RenFaires give a taste of what people can have, 24/7 in the SCA.
Medieval life is also attractive to traditionalists of a Christian nature, again -- before everything was "ruined" by science and modernism. We all love going back to the 16th century to see how it all went wrong, or the 11th century to see how it also went wrong!
What's more, plenty of other subcultures draw on medieval tropes, such as goths and filkers and whatever con-going fandom is up to these days. Any competent cosplayer can "seamlessly" meld into a medieval princess or wench just by designing the right costumes, and there are plenty of YouTubers and Etsy sellers ready to assist!
The following info is dated to about 2004-2008:
I was fortunate enough to live in the Phoenix area, where the second largest gathering occurs in Feb, called the Estrella War (it since moved south to Florence). There are about 5k people that come out for the event, and a giant camp, marketplace, battlefield are all set up.
I spent my days fighting in giant battles, and the evenings were spent with friends and acquaintances. Nights brought parties, etc., but nothing beats falling asleep in a tent to the near-distant beating of drums and occasional bagpiper.
There are a variety of arts and sciences, crafts for children, and of course royal court proceedings. I had an absolute blast as a college student participating.
One day I hope to participate again and venture to Pennsylvania for Pennsic, the biggest which was about 16k folk when I played.
Who knows how the SCA is now; I've been out for so long with a shoulder injury. But I've considered getting back in for rapier combat which looked like a lot of fun but not nearly at the battle scale of hardsuit.
This kicked into overdrive in the 20th, with the nascent genre of literary fantasy (and, later, video games,) showing people alternate worlds that are potent medicine against the enlightenment and industrial age -- for they contain little or nothing of the more dour aspects of 9th-17th century life.
If anything, it seems to me that most fantasy books and games like Dungeons and Dragons only make sense if you imagine they take place in the distant post-industrial future. They're too cozy; there is far too much healing magic and other tech; their economies are in many cases post-scarcity...
As to why fans of the fantasy genre prefer medieval settings. I know it's a topic of discussion, but I don't know if there is a widely accepted explanation.
So it's native to the new world, but not native to North America?
Anyway, 1500s is when they came to Europe, so maybe they did enjoy a good turkey leg...
I went in star trek blue. My favourite response a lady tells me that I'm violating the temporal prime directive for being in uniform. That was hilarious!
Note, I was literally the only person dressed in star trek lol.
...As opposed to the actual medieval period, which was famously chaste, calm, and sober?
There are more historically-oriented "entertainments", but they tend to be both non-profit and not audience-based (everyone attending is in costume).
What happened is that this county gathering has been happening for centuries. Since 1253 in truth. First it was called a gathering, then a cobble, and finally in 1582, the Franks took it over.
It was highly popularized as a French affair. The whimsical garb, the music, all something the stodgy English would have no part in. In fact, so stodge were they that it was forced outdoors, as none would rent to the Franks for this. Quite rude, in the rainy land of the Brits!
Eventually it became Frank-aire, just as other loan words from French, like concessionaire or millionaire, and then just Faire.
It's really the world's longest running annual gathering, where there's always a redhead in the same maid outfit. 538 years running, this year in fact! You can find it in the Guinness Book of World Records!
Fun personal fact: Paramount Ranch was also the site of my high school's home cross country course (Westlake High School). During my high school days, the ranch's center was set up as a western town for filming Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. As a kid, you just accept all of that as normal, everyday things. "Doesn't everyone have Renaissance fairs and TV and movie sets in their town?" It took going to college thousands of miles away to realize and appreciate how delightfully weird Southern California can be.
/s No I don't - over-localization is one of the banes of my existence.