Each year around December 21st we open our home to a score or more of folk, work in the kitchen half the day, party the rest of the night and repair the damage the day after.  It is hard work, but always deeply rewarding.  This year we will again travel back in time for an evening to a feast hall in Russia of the year 1280.  We get there through a combined effort of imagination. This we do for pleasure and recreation.  While for certain we don’t want to be fanatic about it-- it is all our collective participation that makes the magic happen.  Here are some suggestions & commentary to help bring this world to life.

Food— Our event will center around a feast.  I do my best to prepare food as it appeared in Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.  There will be plenty of dishes to feast on.  However, many familiar foods are absent-- no tomatoes, potatoes, hot peppers etc (found only in the Americas).  And since it is winter there won’t be much in the way of fruit & fresh greens.  Our foods are mostly simply prepared with few spices, other than salt and raisins.  Soups, bread, roast meats, fishes, vegetables, pickled item, mead, spiced wine will fill the table.  [If you add to our feast talk to me.]   Our hospitality is defined by generosity—you won’t go away hungry!  Plates and bowls would have been shared; we won’t go that far for sanitary and aesthetic reasons.  You do need to bring your own tableware.  To be authentic wooden plates, bowls & goblets might be best, metal or glass is ok (you are very rich!), a spoon and a knife.  It is, of course, correct to eat with your hands and wipe them on the dog.  It is a good thing to drink a lot (if you can handle it.)

Clothing—  Medieval type clothing really helps set the atmosphere.  Some of us have elaborate costumes from years of playing, while others will be faking it.  Medieval clothes were generally loose fitting, natural fibers (wool, linen & cotton) in bright primary colors, or undyed material.  Tunics or loose belted shirts for men, long dresses for woman.  We have some extra stuff to loan.  Avoid stuff that is distinctly modern in appearance—tee shirts, items w/ logos, watches etc.

Speech—  Nothing is so effective in creating atmosphere as the way we speak to each other. Many normal topics of daily conversation will work perfectly well at our feast: friends, family, travel, house construction, romance, sex and slave trade.  Others topics will pull people right out of the Middle Ages: TV. computers, video games etc.  I ask, as a courtesy to your hosts and other guests, that you set these aside for the evening [or at least keep them from the feast table].  The Middle Ages were a violent and hierarchical time.  This, of course, led to good manners.  [Consider the consequences of being rude!].   Polite address to everyone in our house is “my Lord” or “my Lady”.   Good manners reflect will reflect well on you.   Phrases like,” By your leave” & ”gentles” will help.  Should we have servants at the event, it should not be necessary to speak roughly to them- simple requests will suffice.  If any beatings are necessary lord of the household will take care of them.  It is a night of good cheer and hope [for the light to return].

Stories and Song—  Every year we are most fortunate to have talented bards and musicians.  Nearly all the material is superb and appropriate.  I simply remind people to leave out modern references.   Many sources exist for narrative material—Viking Sagas, Medieval Romances, the Arabian Nights, folk tales (often more recent, but fakable). etc…  Bards will be richly rewarded!

…Then he set out the table of oak, he spread it out with sugared foods, he spread it out with honeyed drinks, with mead which was quite mellow; he rolled out casks into the fortified courtyard.  “Eat your fill of my food, and drink yourselves drunk on my drink, only do not take to quarrelling among yourselves…”    from Vasili Buslaev, from 12th C. Novgorod

Commentary on the Commentary
(Greg asked Elaine Ragland, our nearby medieval historian to comment on his commentary)

Subject:  Perhaps you could comment/ correct this Date:    Wed, 29 Oct 2003 15:40:36 -0500
From:     "Elaine M. Ragland" <er37@columbia.edu>
 
I think your description of medieval conditions is pretty accurate.  If I were to add something, it would be to comment upon the reason for the feast.  After all--no one in the Middle Ages would just throw a feast for no reason, especially in winter.  So you might want to add something about the Yule season—history, customs, traditional decorations, special foods, etc.  I found the following web page, which I thought was pretty informative without being overly scholarly:   http://www.isholf.is/gardarj/

Also, since it's a feast and a holiday, people would be in their "Sunday Best" clothing, possibly even borrowing jewelry or feast gear from relatives, to put on a better show.  No one wants to go to a party where there are important people dressed like a frump.

And the Yule/Christmas season should be a time of good cheer--when people put aside past differences, pet the cats, stop beating the servants, etc.  I mean--we're celebrating the return of the sun. There should be a sense of giddy relief, which finds release in excessive merry-making (or maybe that's just the mead).  Besides, the peasants just paid their quarterly dues, and we're all feeling fat and happy.

Of course, the thing that's really missing at your feast is large slabs of roasting meat.  Perhaps you should have Brother Joseph publicly censure you for indecent behavior (consorting with Mongols, sex with sheep, etc.) and declare a half-fast (fish and dairy, no meat) for the household, for the salvation of your soul.  Technically, you're not allowed to fast on a feast day, but a half-fast might be allowable in extreme circumstances.  Then we could get into a lively discussion about the relative merits of Valhalla vs. the Christian heaven, and you could pick out your slave girls for your final send-off.  That kind of schtick.

Just a few thoughts.  None of it's necessary.  Your write-up is fine (although I still predict that someone will get offended).  Let me know if there's anything you particularly need for the feast (you're allowed to borrow extra loot for "good show" too).

Regards,  Elaine

Commentary on the Commentary on the Commentary.

Cool comments.  Last thoughts-- Peotr (and the rest of the Rus nobles) are nominally Christians.  It is just the he is having more trouble hiding his Pagan beliefs than most.  We are holding this feast to bring the sun back—pretty serious work!  My book on Slavic magic says that life is underground at this time of year and that it is an appropriate time to “honor ancestors and to perform sorcery.”  By the way, just because Peotr is a sinner shouldn’t mean everyone has to have a “half fast”.  I will speak to Peotr’s priest.   -Greg