Entertainment for Children in the Renaissance

Parlor Games

Sports

Conclusion

Kids in the Renaissance enjoyed playing many different board games to keep them occupied including, modern day Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon (backgammon is played by rolling a dice and moving your pieces according to your roll. The goal of the game is to have all of your pieces off of the board before your opponent does). They also played games titled Cherry Seed Spitting (which is a game to see who can spit cherry seeds the farthest), Frussi (which is now known as Primiera, a card game where each player is dealt four cards. Who ever gets four of a kind throughout the game is the winner), and Basetta (which is also a card game in which the dealer places three cards face down. The players then randomly select one, hoping that it matched one of the cards showing). Another popular game was knuckle bones. This is the same game that children play today except, we know it as jacks. Aside from games, children also played with wooden and clay horses, dolls, and toy soldiers.

Renaissance children kept busy during the day by participating in lively sporting matches . These sports included swimming, archery, and fencing. They also jumped and wrestled while playing variations of soccer and football. These sports involved large rowdy crowds and very few rules. The games were often quite a bit violent and therefore dangerous in nature however, it was a great mechanism of entertainment for the children of the Renaissance and adults as well. Since the Renaissance, these games have evolved into something greater. They have been refined, the rules have been set, and now they are better than ever.

Speaker: not applicable

Occasion: To tell us about entertainment for children of the Renaissance

Audience: High school students

Purpose: To inform and teach people about what children during the renaissance era did for fun and entertainment.

Subject: Entertainment for children in the Renaissance

Tone: Informative

Theater

Children of the renaissance didn't have television to watch like we do today. They found entertainment through theater and plays. A very popular theater of this time was the Globe Theater, where members of the audience could stand in the pit, or more wealthy families can sit in the galleries.

Music

While music is commonly listened to today through phones, radios, and other electronic devices, in the Renaissance era, children also listened to music. They carried out this act and fun time by pulling out their own instruments to play for others or listened intently as their more experienced elders played. They also clapped and sang to the well known beats of instruments like the lute, viola, organetto, bagpipes, harps, and recorders. These wonderful sounds filled the streets. Adults and children alike gathered in central points of town to join in glorious celebrations of music.

Entertainment for Children in the Renaissance