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Pageant comes from the archaic word for the wagon stage, "pagyn.” It is a word used to describe the movable stage on which a scene of the processional religious play was performed. [2] The origin of the religious play began in medieval churches. The dramas began as a simple way to impart the message of the Bible to the people.
A medieval pageant is a form of procession traditionally associated with both secular and religious rituals, often with a narrative structure. Pageantry was an important aspect of medieval European seasonal festivals, in particular around the celebration of Corpus Christi , which began after the thirteenth century.
The Barbers' Play: The Baptism performed from a wagon in the street in York in 2014. The York Mystery Plays, more properly the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of 48 mystery plays or pageants covering sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgment.
The Mystery plays were banned nationally in the 16th century. Chester was the last to concede in 1578 and so became the longest-running cycle in medieval times. It was revived in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, and they have since been staged every five years. [5]
First, "medieval" denotes a time period (500–1500) far too large and complex to understand in short descriptions. And within it, there was "a vast and varied spectrum of kinds of performances: ludus , jeu, ordo, representatio, officium, pagina, miraculum, mystère, processus, interlude, morality, mumming , disguising, and, of course, play."
The biblical portion of the play, a retelling of the Visitation of the Shepherds, comes only after a longer, invented story that mirrors it, in which the shepherds, before visiting the holy baby outside in a manger, must first rescue one of their sheep that has been hidden in a cradle indoors by a comically evil sheep-stealing couple.
2.3 Transition and early medieval theatre, 500–1050. ... Plays were staged on pageant wagon stages, which were platforms mounted on wheels used to move scenery ...
A 13th century drawing of a treadwheel crane. A treadwheel crane (Latin: magna rota) is a wooden, human powered hoisting and lowering device. It was primarily used during the Roman period and the Middle Ages in the building of castles and cathedrals. The often heavy charge is lifted as the individual inside the treadwheel crane walks.