Parrot festival
Description:
The holiday has its origins in the Middle Ages, when clamped by fortress walls, from a life far from comfort and carelessness, the citizen rushed with childish delight into the midst of mass fun. And there were many reasons for this - the calendar of the Catholic era was full of red days in honor of the patrons of the city, the guild, and the profession. Near these memorable dates peacefully coexisted holidays inherited from rural paganism. Then important dates of economic, political and military life of the state began to be added to the calendar. The latter include tournaments that have spread throughout Europe, shooter holidays.
The birthplace of shooting competitions is Flanders. There, under the walls of the city of Curtres, the people’s militia for the first time smashed the color of French chivalry and the myth of the invulnerability of horsemen chained in armor. The city's miracle weapon was a crossbow. He was easy to handle, and the time to master his secrets took much less than to comprehend knightly science.
Shooting competitions were called parrot drinking. Why parrots? The parrot is a favorite of the German people. Probably in this strange bird lived the memory of the exploits of the Crusaders. Together with the German colonists, the parrot reached all other countries.
On a warm spring day, the city streets were filled with festive noise. At the head of the procession was the winner of last year's competitions. Servants carried the culprit of the celebration - silver and painted in all colors of the rainbow. On the square, the main structure was a “nasture” for the cherished target. Its height was striking - they built a master's roost on ship masts. Of course, only the most accurate shooter could become the winner, the king of the holiday.
The winner was entitled to a title, a silver double of the target, a royal treat.
Modern celebration is not much different from medieval. Only the parrot is cut from foam, but the arrows still ring.