Medieval What's That Huzzah That s how people said Hooray in Europe long ago It was in the days of knights and queens castles and cottages We call it the Middle Ages or the medieval time For us today huzzah is a funny word It sounds a lot like fuzz SAW The word medieval is pronounced meed evil The years were between 480 and 1500 A D It was a time span of about a thousand years and ended when Columbus and other explorers traveled to the rest of the world Europe was made up of many small countries and kingdoms then The people lived under the rule of a king and queen or lord and lady who owned the land Kings and queens tried to rule more land by taking over their neighbors kingdoms through war During that time people depended on one another for many things Those who worked the peasants fed those who fought the knights and those who prayed the monks The fighters protected the king dom and the monks prayed for all The days of knights and castles were long ago yet we still find them interesting We can look at their books and paintings and see that their customs and beliefs were the beginnings of our own People who traveled to the New World brought many customs
and ways of living with them from their Old World homes Their ideas about freedom government and religion formed the ways we do things in North America today Their writing schools and art influ enced ours When we look back we can see some thing of ourselves Many years ago Europe was very different from today During the Middle Ages homes were castles if you were rich and royal or cottages for everyone else People lived in small towns around a castle where they farmed or made things to trade with each other The owner of the castle might have been a king or a rich and powerful knight who served the king Most people didn't travel very far because bandits and robbers would stop them and the people in other kingdoms usually didn't speak the same lan guage It was a dangerous time to live because pirates bandits and attacking armies from other lands were always a threat People lived near a castle so that the king's knights could protect them Vil lages and castles had walls around them with gates At night these gates were closed Watchmen were assigned to spot travelers coming Explorers began traveling to other lands by the end of the Middle Ages That s when Columbus made his journey to North America and Marco Polo explored far off China In the Middle Ages only neighboring villages could under
stand each other's language If you traveled beyond three or four villages you probably wouldn't understand the lan guage People worked hard and many died from sickness At that time no one knew what made people sick They thought that illness was caused by smells or magic People then had very simple lives but they began reading and writing trading goods in markets and going to fairs where they saw new things such as spices silk fabric and perfumes as well as jugglers puppet shows and plays Religion was very important People went to the church or synagogue day and prayed before every they went to bed at night in the morning when they got up and before meals Some people devoted their lives to the church living together in monasteries as monks or nuns There they grew gardens wrote books and taught lessons to children They cared for orphans and the poor As protection against evil spells children wore pieces of coral on necklaces Children of ordinary families had to begin working as soon as they could walk They gathered sticks for firewood picked berries and collected the bits of wool that fell off of the sheep As they got older they were given jobs herding geese or pigs Girls were hired out as maids when they were six years old By the time children were 10 years old they were working like adults ChildhoodWhat Was It
Long ago babies caught illnesses easily and many didn't live very long Children in the castles were trained to do jobs too Girls were taught things that they needed to know for their job as lady of the castle when they married They learned to plan meals and banquets to heal the wounded and to train young pages in good manners Girls learned to sing and to play musical instruments so that they could entertain guests They learned to ride horses expertly Wealthy girls were also expected to do fine needlework and to dress beautifully The sons of the castle families were trained to become knights First they worked as pages in another family's castle Pages served and cleaned during banquets When they were teenagers they became squires to knights They carried the knight's equipment at tournaments and battles and helped him with his horse and armor Rich or Poor Peasant or Royal Children also had time for toys games and singing They played sports and raised pets such as cats dogs and birds They went to fairs to watch plays and puppet shows or to tournaments to cheer for their favorite knight By the end of the Middle Ages girls and boys of wealthy families were taught reading and writing by tutors or in schools Parents read bedtime stories to
