Archive for December, 2011

Imagine if it was 1582!

As with many of the holidays, a lot of our fans are curious as to how people treated these specific days during the Medieval and Renaissance time periods. Since the most relevant holiday is the start of the New Year, we thought we would give a brief history and overview of what things were like during the era we all know and love.

As with most of our traditions, the origin of the celebration of the first of the year came with the Romans. The Roman calender initially only included ten months, with the start of the year coming on March 1^st. This date was chosen due to its proximity to the vernal equinox.

In the year 700 B.C., the Roman King Numa Pontilius included January and February to the calendar. Eventually, in 153 B.C. January 1^st became the new start of the year. This change was made because it was regarded as the start of the civil terms of elected officials within the Roman political system. Each January 1^st would mark the election of the two new Consuls, which were the high public official the Roman Republic.

During the Middle Ages, many religious organizations abolished the 1^st of January as start of the year as it was considered to be pagan. Many religious officials that would wear Medieval Priest Robes called for Christian communities to observe the first of the year to be either the birth of Jesus, December 25^th, or the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25^th. The official repeal of January 1^st was in 567 due to the Council of Tours.

Finally, in 1582, the calendar year was reformed via the Gregorian calendar. This called for the first of the year to once again coincide with the beginning of January. This became the popular and widely accepted custom throughout the Catholic world. This change was more of a gradual process for Protestant communities, with a prime example being the British Empire. Up until the year 1752, England and all of their colonies, which included America, still recognized March as being the start of the New Year.

That is a brief overview of the history of the holiday. We hope this help answered some of the questions you may have had. We also hope that for this year, you are able to achieve your New Year’s Resolution.

Where is the Baron's daughter?

We rode as hard and fast as was possible, stopping only to feed and water our steeds. We wanted to ensure we met with the appropriate time table of Vampire so that we did not insight the launch of the Unholy assault prematurely.

Trevor rode with us but had planned in advance to not accompany us inside of the underground structure. He was convinced that Rulatha would be able to sense his presence if he got too close as they have had encounters in the past. We agreed that as we descended into the depths that we would leave a trail of lamp oil behind us. If things did not go according to plan we would light the trail and Trevor would come to our assistance.

We tied our steeds off to a tree, readied the replica pendant and started down into the darkness, with but one lamp to light the way.

The closer we got to the antechamber the more we could hear the clicking of boney feet against the stone floor. As we entered, we saw a number of skeletons moving about, seemingly assembling the necessary accessories for war. Though, we did notice that the number of skeletal warriors had significantly decreased since the last time we were in this desolate place.

Suspended from the roof of the cavern we spied Josephus. He was bound by several leather straps and seemed to be unconscious. Beneath him stood the same skeleton, who wore the black Mage’s cloak, that transported us with such speed only a few days early. Its eyeless sockets turned toward us as we entered and although I knew it was impossible, it seemed to offer us a grin.

The Skeletal Mage lifted its arm, one of which grasped the staff made of petrified wood. An feint breeze rustled through cavern, causing the lamp lights to flicker for mere seconds. When the flames regained their intensity, standing before was Rulatha.

“You were wise to return,” his steady voice informed us, “Now where is the Baron’s daughter?”

Hear ye, Hear ye!

If you are planning on visiting a Renaissance Faire in the near future, wearing a costume can help add to the atmosphere.  Or maybe you are a seasoned veteran who loves to dress up, but you are looking for a different costume to change things up a bit.

Popular roles at a Faire are:

-Warriors

-Knights

-Clerics

-Tavern Keeps

-Pirates

But there is one role that people sometimes shy away from: The poet. Medieval poets were often great lyricists who penned some of the most beautiful poetry that we read today. If you are looking to meet a lovely lady while at the fair, why not consider wooing her with some vibrant verses? An appropriate costume to go along with this archetype would be this Renaissance cotton poet shirt.

We also wanted to bring up this idea this week because the 22^nd of December is National Haiku Day. We thought it might be fun to pair a pop-culture event with some of our Renaissance themes. Therefore, we have tried our hand at some of our own haiku.

“Cunning Rogue”

O’ Wondrous Maiden

Your vast beauty radiates.

Please bring me some ale.

“The Calm Before the Storm”

Rain, nor thunder could

draw the evil Duke from his lair

Churchmen prayed all night.

Can you come up with any? If you can feel free to post them in the comments section!

Getting ready for the battle

We’ve been on the move, doing our best to recall the path we initially took while traveling to the lair of the Master of the Night. We stayed constantly on guard, fearful that we are walking into an ambush—again. When we saw the cliff face, Trevor had us hold our position.

“You remember what you all must do?” Trevor asked.

“We’re supposed to go in and offer this pendant,” Grantiere replied.

“You’re forgetting an important element,” said Trevor.

“And we’re supposed to let the creature know that the Baron’s Daughter is on the way,” finished Celebryn.

“Correct,” Trevor started, “One last thing: I can not enter with you.”

“You’re the only one who knows how to fight this thing,” Baltus demanded.

“Rulatha will remember me and it will compromise the mission,” Trevor responded, “I will waiting outside should anything happen.”

“Isn’t that comforting,” Grantiere said, “We’re wasting time here.”

As we moved toward the cavern entrance, I couldn’t help but feel protected underneath my chain mail armor shirt. Even though we were facing a very unusual foe, I still could feel the exhilaration of the upcoming encounter. When the actual outcropping of the entrance came into view, we saw that it was patrolled by some of the same walking dead from the our last visit. We all dismounted and made our way to meet with the vampire.

Create authentic food for medieval celebrations

From time to time we like to bring you recipes that have a Medieval flair to them so that you can include period food during your reenactments or  LARP event. And so we realized that when it comes to the Middle Ages,  there is something that takes precedence when it comes to food: Preservation.

Since there were no means of freezing or refrigeration, tavern owners needed to adopt other methods of making their food harvested during Autumn last through the Winter. Here are some of the more popular methods, other than salting, that were used:

-Smoking: Smoking via wood smoke was the common way to preserve fish or pork.

-Drying: Grains, cereals, meats, and fruit could be preserved through drying.

-Picking: Substances high in salt such as brine, or liquids like vinegar, were the usual methods of preserving fish and others meats. This was also a great way to keep vegetables longer into the colder months.

-Honey: When it came to certain drinks, such as mead, honey was sometimes used as a way to preserve the eventual mixture.

-Gelatin: Meat and fresh fish could be well kept by cooking them in a material that will eventually produce and solidify into a gel.

These are just some of the methods used during those times. If you ever wanted to give your customers/players a true sense of historical food, you can consider trying one of these preservation techniques. It can also be an educational process if you have your servers, who are dressed in beer wench costumes, work with your customers/players in assisting with some of these methods so that they can learn how people had to prepare for the winter months in the Middle Ages.

What will happen?

The entirety of the kingdom is at a state of alert. Our couriers have been dispatched to all of the villages and dells, summoning all members of the army and all of the local militias. With the uncertainty of the unholy threat, the Bishop wanted the capitol well defended.  Men have been streaming in through the gates all morning and making their way to the armory in order pick up a weapon and to be fitted for Medieval armor.

Trevor is still formulating a plan, utilizing his vast experience in Witch Hunting to deal with the vampire. He feels that since my small troop has seen the vampire in action that we are the most qualified to participate in the attempt to destroy him. We are to leave immediately in order to meet the three day deadline so that we can rescue Josephus from the clutches of this villain.

Trevor has commissioned a Mage to assist with the creation of an artifact that bears a similar appearance to that of the pendant we are to return to the vampire. We hope that it is a close enough replica that it satisfies Rulatha long enough for us to return Josephus back to the castle. Once the vampire discovers that it is a forgery, we hope he still launches his assault. Our castle walls are formidable and can withstand the brunt of an assault, while our detachment moves into position to stake the enemy general.

We leave in mere moments. It has been quite some time since the Kingdom’s entire panoply of war has been assembled. Soldiers stand on the bulwarks at all hours, keeping watch for the army of the living dead that may already be on its way. Battle is imminent.