To medieval people, there was a large difference between workday and holiday. Since day-to-day work was so hard, people took every chance to have feasts.
The religious feasts were important. During the year there were several celebrations for the different saints. On the day when the Patron Saint of the parish church was celebrated, all people gathered for a big feast both in- and outside the church. Other saints were also more or less celebrated during the year. There were special wooden calendars in the church where the parishioners could see when the day of a certain saint was celebrated.
The greatest religious feast was Easter. Easter Sunday was a joyous celebration, beginning with a midnight Mass at church. On Easter Sunday people had good food and drink. They gave each other presents and they painted eggs. Before Easter was celebrated, there was a 40-day-period of fast, Lent, when no meat was allowed. The beginning of Lent was also celebrated. There were feasts, games and lots of food. After that, one had to wait until Easter Sunday before eating large amounts of good food again.
Christmas was also a great feast. The weeks before Christmas, Advent, were spent fasting. Christmas was prepared in many different ways: the pig was slaughtered, beer was brewed and bread was baked. The house was decorated and food was put out for the "tomte" (a kind of gnome, whom people believed took good care of the farm). After Mass on Christmas Eve, the feast began with good food and many games. During Christmas and until the day of St Knut (Canute in English) on January 13, one only did absolutely necessary work.
Other important celebrations of the year were The eve of St. Valborg (Walpurgis), Whitsun and Midsummer. At Michaelmas, September 29, one celebrated the harvest. One also celebrated All Saint’s Day at the beginning of November. During early summer, between sowing and hay-making, there were also feasts. Then, young people met to play and have competitions in the fields. They met to see who was the strongest and who was the fastest.
Read more about feasts and celebrations under "Town life. Workdays and holidays".