Noncalendrical Festivals

This chapter discusses noncalendrical celebrations, that is, those high moments in the life cycle—birth, coming of age, coronation, marriage, and death—and the celebratory, almost ritualized, aspects of events organized to mark such important moments in the life cycles of kings and their close families. Celebrations often served as an extension of kingly and noble hegemony. In this regard, how other contending centers of authority—cities, noblemen, ecclesiastical authorities, and others—reacted to, shared in, or ignored these celebrations provides telling signs that none of these feasts were innocent affairs undertaken “just for fun.” They were always rife with wider political intent and meaning.

Ancient history · Coronation · Hegemony · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy