Editing Elizabethan era (section)

==Popular culture==
===Pastimes===
{{Main|Elizabethan leisure}}
The Annual Summer [[Fair]] and other seasonal fairs such as May Day were often bawdy affairs.

Watching plays became very popular during the Tudor period. Most towns sponsored plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns (referred to as inn-yards) followed by the first theatres (great open-air amphitheatres and then the introduction of indoor theatres called playhouses). This popularity was helped by the rise of great playwrights such as [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Christopher Marlowe]] using London theatres such as the [[Globe Theatre]]. By 1595, 15,000 people a week were watching plays in London. It was during Elizabeth's reign that the first real theatres were built in England. Before theatres were built, actors travelled from town to town and performed in the streets or outside inns.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/tudors/entertainment.html |title=Tudor Entertainment |publisher=Woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk |date=2004-01-01 |access-date=2010-08-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618130140/http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/tudors/entertainment.html |archive-date=18 June 2010 }}</ref>

Miracle plays were local re-enactments of stories from the Bible. They derived from the old custom of [[mystery play]]s, in which stories and fables were enacted to teach lessons or educate about life in general. They influenced Shakespeare.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Theresa Coletti |title=The Chester Cycle in Sixteenth-Century Religious Culture |journal=Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies |year=2007 |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=531–547 |doi=10.1215/10829636-2007-012 }}</ref>

Festivals were popular seasonal entertainments.<ref>François Laroque (1993) ''Shakespeare's festive world: Elizabethan seasonal entertainment and the professional stage'', Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0521457866}}</ref>

===Sports===
There were many different types of Elizabethan sports and entertainment. Animal sports included [[bear baiting|bear]] and [[bull baiting]], [[dog fighting]] and [[cock fighting]].

The rich enjoyed [[tennis]], [[fencing]], [[jousting]], and [[running at the ring]]. Hunting was strictly limited to the upper class. They favoured their packs of dogs and hounds trained to chase foxes, hares and boars. The rich also enjoyed hunting small game and birds with hawks, known as [[falconry]].

====Jousting====
Jousting was an upscale, very expensive sport where warriors on horseback raced toward each other in full armor trying to use their lance to knock the other off his horse. It was a violent sport--[[Henry II of France|King Henry II]] of France was killed in a tournament in 1559, as were many lesser men. King Henry VIII was a champion; he finally retired from the lists after a hard fall left him unconscious for hours.<ref>Richard Barber and Juliet Barker,  ''Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages'' (Boydell Press, 1998) {{ISBN|0851157815}}</ref>

Other sports included archery, bowling, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, [[troco]], [[quoits]], [[Skittles (sport)|skittles]], wrestling and [[mob football]].

====Gambling and card games====
Dice was a popular activity in all social classes.  Cards appeared in Spain and Italy about 1370, but they probably came from Egypt. They began to spread throughout Europe and came into England around 1460. By the time of Elizabeth's reign, gambling was a common sport. Cards were not played only by the upper class. Many of the lower classes had access to playing cards. The card suits tended to change over time. The first Italian and Spanish decks had the same suits: Swords, Batons/ Clubs, Cups, and Coins. The suits often changed from country to country. England probably followed the Latin version, initially using cards imported from Spain but later relying on more convenient supplies from France.<ref>{{cite book|author=Daines Barrington|author-link=Daines Barrington|title=Archaeologia, or, Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity|volume=8|year=1787|publisher=[[Society of Antiquaries of London]]|location=London|page=141}}</ref> Most of the decks that have survived use the French Suit: Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds. Yet even before Elizabeth had begun to reign, the number of cards had been standardized to 52 cards per deck. The lowest court subject in England was called the "knave". The lowest court card was therefore called the knave until later when the term "Jack" became more common. Popular card games included Maw, One and Thirty, Bone-ace. (These are all games for small group players.) Ruff and Honors was a team game.

===Festivals, holidays and celebrations===
[[File:Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder - Festival at Bermondsey.png|right|thumb|upright=1.3|A wedding feast, c. 1569]]

During the Elizabethan era, people looked forward to holidays because opportunities for leisure were limited, with time away from hard work being restricted to periods after church on Sundays. For the most part, leisure and festivities took place on a public church holy day. Every month had its own holiday, some of which are listed below:
* The first Monday after [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]] of January (any time between 7 January and 14 January) was [[Plough Monday]]. It celebrated returning to work after the Christmas celebrations and the New Year.
* 2 February: [[Candlemas]]. Although often still very cold, Candlemas was celebrated as the first day of spring. All Christmas decorations were burned on this day, in candlelight and torchlight processions.
* 14 February: [[Valentine's Day]].
* Between 3 March and 9 March: [[Shrove Tuesday]] (known as [[Mardi Gras]] or Carnival on the Continent). On this day, apprentices were allowed to run amok in the city in mobs, wreaking havoc, because it supposedly cleansed the city of vices before [[Lent]]. <br />The day after Shrove Tuesday was [[Ash Wednesday]], the first day of Lent when all were to abstain from eating and drinking certain things.<br />24 March: [[Lady Day]] or the feast of the Annunciation, the first of the [[quarter days|Quarter Days]] on which rents and salaries were due and payable. It was a legal New Year when courts of law convened after a winter break, and it marked the supposed moment when the Angel [[Gabriel]] came to announce to the [[Virgin Mary]] that she would bear a child.
* 1 May: [[May Day]], celebrated as the first day of summer. This was one of the few Celtic festivals with no connection to Christianity and patterned on [[Beltane]]. It featured crowning a [[May Queen]], a [[green man|Green Man]] and dancing around a [[maypole]].
* 21 June: [[Midsummer]] (Christianized as the feast of [[John the Baptist]]) and another Quarter Day.
* 1 August: [[Lammas]]tide, or Lammas Day. Traditionally, the first day of August, in which it was customary to bring a loaf of bread to the church.
* 29 September: [[Michaelmas]]. Another Quarter Day. Michaelmas celebrated the beginning of autumn, and [[Michael (archangel)|Michael the Archangel]].
* 25 October: [[St. Crispin's Day]]. Bonfires, revels, and an elected 'King Crispin' were all featured in this celebration. Dramatized by Shakespeare in ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''.<br />28 October: [[Lord Mayor's Show|The Lord Mayor's Show]], which still takes place today in London.<br />31 October: [[All Hallows Eve]] or [[Halloween]]. The beginning celebration of the days of the dead.
* 1 November: [[All Saints' Day|All Hallows]] or [[All Saints' Day]], followed by [[All Souls' Day]].
* 17 November: [[Accession Day]] or Queen's Day, the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, celebrated with lavish [[Accession Day tilt|court festivities featuring jousting]] during her lifetime and as a national holiday for dozens of years after her death.<ref>Hutton 1994, p. 146–151</ref>
* 24 December: The [[Twelve Days of Christmas]] started at sundown and lasted until [[Epiphany (Christian)|Epiphany]] on 6 January. Christmas was the last of the Quarter Days for the year.