Maybe Being a Medieval Peasant Wasn?t so Horrible After All?

In fact, considering all of the holidays enforced by the Catholic Church, and life events like weddings and births that required celebration and time off from work, the medieval peasant worked, on average, a mere 150 days per year. This translates to more than half of the year being spent not working.

To be sure, working only 150 days sounds pretty sweet. This leads us to ask a tantalizing question: given the chance, would you give up modern conveniences and adopt the medieval lifestyle in order to gain an extra 110 days off?

When approaching this hypothetical scenario, the first thing you must realize is that, for medieval peasants, these were not paid days off. Therefore, adopting the medieval work schedule would mean not having enough funds to travel or do the pricy leisure activities afforded modern workers.

To give you an idea of your time-off options as a medieval peasant, consider how they spent their downtime. Essentially, they tried to make the best of it by attending local events (sort of like a staycation). Also, the pace of life for the medieval peasant was much, much slower; they would take their sweet time when it came to eating meals together (fast food and microwaves were obviously not a thing), and afternoon naps were super common. Lynn Parramore of Evonomics gives this assessment of how peasants spent their time off: ?Weddings, wakes and births might mean a week off quaffing ale to celebrate, and when wandering jugglers or sporting events came to town, the peasant expected time off for entertainment.?

Okay, so this poor-yet-pleasant life of leisure doesn’t sound too bad, and perhaps even appealing for most. But you might change your mind when you consider the treacherous downsides of, you know, being a medieval peasant. Here?s a short list of medieval dangers from History Extra magazine:

• Plague: The deadly bubonic plague caused oozing swellings (buboes) all over the body. With the septicaemic plague, victims suffered from skin that was darkly discoloured (turning black) as a result of toxins in the bloodstream.
• Famine: Faced with dwindling food supplies due to bad weather and poor harvests, people starved or barely survived on meagre rations like bark, berries and inferior corn and wheat damaged by mildew.
• Childbirth: Giving birth was incredibly perilous. Breech presentations of the baby during labour often proved fatal for both mother and child. Labour could go on for several days, and some women eventually died of exhaustion.
• Infancy and childhood: Infancy was particularly dangerous during the Middle Ages ? mortality was terribly high. Based on surviving written records alone, scholars have estimated that 20-to-30 percent of children under seven died, but the actual figure is almost certainly higher.
• Violence: Medieval violence took many forms. Street violence and brawls in taverns were not uncommon. Vassals might also revolt against their lords. Likewise, urban unrest also led to uprisings.
• Early or sudden death: Sudden or premature death was common in the medieval period… Peasants in the English manor of Halesowen might hope to reach the age of 50, but by contrast poor tenants in the same manor could hope to live only about 40 years. Those of even lower status (cottagers) could live a mere 30 years.

So, from a civilization standpoint, there appears to be a trade off. A high investment of time and resources is required in order to gain the technological advancements needed to remedy the problems of the Dark Ages, as well as to obtain modern conveniences like consumer gadgets, big homes, cars, and expensive vacations. As Inc. puts it, ?Our higher standard of living comes at a price. If we want nice things, we need to work more than our ancestors… Some of us want to climb to the top and are willing to sacrifice our time off. Some of us just really claim we have to work in order to avoid going on vacation with the inlaws.?

Although, that said, working 260 days per year may still be a bit much for the modern worker. Especially considering that in industrialized nations in Europe, like France and Greece, the average worker gets 25-to-30 paid days off each year, and they seem to not be experiencing any of the nasty problems associated with medieval times. In fact, the countries that offer more vacation time have much happier citizens than their overworked American counterparts.

Although, at the end of the day, White Mountain IT Services is confident that even if society took many steps back and found itself once again in the throngs of the Dark Ages, people would still need tech support.