Popular recreation – recreation for the masses, involving violent, unruly ‘mob games’
- The upper classes – the aristocracy – played refined games with complex rules, such as real tennis and fencing
- The working classes – the peasants – were limited to so-called ‘mob-games’
- Peasants lived a rural life based on the farming year
- Church’s holy days and festivals provided little recreation time
- Popular recreations were occasional happenings
- These early games had no clear rules, more like a free-for-all kick-about
Popular recreations e.g. mob football characteristics:
- Local, often rural
- Disorganised/unstructured/Few or simple unwritten rules
- Working/lower-class involvement
- Based on force not skill/Violent – many injuries
- Participant base rather than spectators
- Used limited equipment/facilities
- Played only occasionally on festivals/holidays
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