Leisure was a big deal in the Middle Ages. The era holds lessons for today...

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Leisure was a big deal in the Middle Ages. Historian Witold Rybczynski says the era holds lessons for today

By Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Bec Zajac for Life Matters

Feasts, saints, circuses — there were plenty of good excuses to stop working in centuries past.(Getty: MPI/Stringer)

We live in an era of phones that can measure your heartbeat and ovens that can clean themselves — praiseworthy technological advancements.

But, compared to our ancestors who lived centuries ago, modern Westerners might be falling behind in another important aspect of life: leisure.

"In the Middle Ages, people actually had more leisure time and more holidays than we do," cultural historian Witold Rybczynski tells ABC RN's Life Matters.

"They had market days, they had feast days, saints' days throughout the year, local days and then finally holidays."

They also had week-long weddings and, if a travelling menagerie, circus or bull run came to town, people would down tools to enjoy it, he says.

"Leisure was more important in terms of everyday life than the work. The work was harder and broken up much more … compared to today."

So how are we engaging with leisure today — and does something need to change?

Professor Rybczynski says leisure was a more important part of people's lives in the Middle Ages than today.(Getty: clu)

Birth of the weekend

The seven-day week observed by much of the world today probably dates back to the Babylonians, Professor Rybczynski says.

Within it, a designated day of rest has long existed, mainly for religious reasons.

"For Jews, it was a Saturday. For Christians, it was Sunday, and for Muslims, it was Friday. So it varied. But it was really the religious festival, the religious day, which established that week," he says.

Across all religions, one of the week's constraints was that you couldn't work on that day.

"And that's really the first day of enforced leisure," Professor Rybczynski says.

Until the Industrial Revolution kicked off in the 1760s, many workers would be paid once a week at the end of their working day on Saturday.

"They had Saturday afternoon and Sunday free, and that's when the weekend arrives. So it's a one-and-a-half-day weekend [that] eventually becomes a two-day weekend," Professor Rybczynski says.

In Australia, it was in the post-war era that the two-day weekend became widespread.

Around this time there was a boom in the business of leisure, Professor Rybczynski writes in his book, Waiting for the Weekend. The modern idea of personal leisure, including coffee houses, professional sports and holiday travel, emerged as a result.

The concept of the weekend was embraced by capitalists and industrialists alike. Professor Rybczynski says Henry Ford not only wanted workers to rest on the weekend so they would be back to work Monday, but he also wanted them to have the weekend as that would mean they'd need to buy a car to use for trips.

'Enormous expansion' of choice

In the decades since then, we've experienced an "enormous expansion of leisure", says Jamie Cleland, a senior lecturer in the sport and recreation team at the University of South Australia.

And though Australians might be working longer hours than the OECD average, Dr Cleland doesn't believe we're engaging less in leisure today.

Rather, he argues, it's our concept of what constitutes leisure that has changed.

"There's a lot more leisure choice now for people in 2024, than there was in say, the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries," he says.

"Because of things like travel, the growth in television, the internet, social media and tourism, there's a lot more choice."

We might not stop work for a travelling menagerie today, but our choice of leisure activities has expanded enormously.(Unsplash: Janko Ferlic)

Leisure activities can be physical, like cycling or walking, but similarly they can be non-physical, like sitting and resting or watching TV.

Dr Cleland argues that we value leisure more today than ever before — particularly since the COVID pandemic lockdowns.

These periods "made people realise how important leisure time was both outside but also inside," he says.

Balance worth striving for

According to the Australian government's guidelines for physical activity, adults should be moderately active for at least 150 minutes a week.

However, most of us are not succeeding.

"We don't necessarily meet the physical activity guidelines … We're pretty poor on that [as] an Australian nation," Dr Cleland says.

"Obviously we are not an outlier in this. It's worldwide that this is a problem."

But it means physical leisure activities, as well as any non-physical ones, are important to maintain.

While choosing leisure activities is down to the individual, "there's a balance at play".

"Technology is having a massive impact on leisure", he says, pointing to activities like watching streaming services, listening to online music, reading ebooks and playing video games.

For parents in particular, he says it can be a battle trying to give children time on their electronic devices, "but also making sure that they do engage in some form of physical type of leisure".

Professor Rybczynski argues that at any particular time "there's always somebody telling you what you should be doing" with your leisure time.

"I think one of the qualities of leisure and recreation is that you get to choose. And if you want to lie around on a sofa, watching TV, that's your choice," he says.

When ABC RN asked Life Matters listeners to share some of their leisure choices, responses ranged from the organised: 

"I try to plan my weekend, so I prioritise the things I want to do over the chores I need to do. I make a plan across four key themes and plan one thing against each: Family, friends, time in nature and jobs that aren't regular housework. If I tick off all four of those in a weekend, I feel fulfilled and at peace."

... to the free-flowing:

"Definitely get into a flow state doing art [and] more recently, [I get] a feeling of freedom with deep-water running. Floating in deep water is freeing."

... to the physical and non-physical, combined:

"My downtime is running and walking with no earbuds, swimming and yoga. Plus, I make time to read a few pages of a book and listen to an audio story. I try and find time every day for a few of these, rather than leaving it to our idea of the weekend."

Listeners responses highlighted a point that, like Professor Rybczynski, Dr Cleland firmly believes: Everyone's individual leisure time is their own.

However, Dr Cleland adds, "It's about maintaining a balance between the different leisure activities".

"Physical types of leisure are important, depending on your ability to engage in that, but also non-physical aspects of leisure are important, such as just lying and sitting in the garden.

"It just refreshes the mind, which is what we want leisure to be able to do."

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-29/leisure-time-from-middle-ages-to-today-witold-rybczynski/103500020