These events were able to let "farmers understand what they should grow in a certain time period" (Gilson, p98-99). However, these festivals were not only done to have efficient farming, but mostly to have fun. As well as other festivals which were celebrated during the middle ages, many of them were related to religion and nature. Both were important to all people for those helped create people a proper life. Festivals could have been seen, not only as a time to have enjoyment and relaxation, but also as a time which reminded everyone of the thankfulness they should show for religion and nature.
During the Middle Ages, there were a variety of practices that bordered along the edges of heresy such as witchcraft, superstitions, and Flagellums. Heresy is the "error, obdurately held," (Freemantle, p72) which meant, in the Middle Ages, that a person believed something that was contrary to the "revealed truth" (Freemantle, p71) offered by God to humanity through the Church, and that the person continued to hold that belief even after it had been pointed out to him or her how that belief was contrary to "revealed truth" (Freemantle, p71). Heresy was both hated and feared. Heresy was fairly and clearly defined in the Church. Just because a person proclaimed a peculiar belief did not instantly make the person a heretic. The belief had to be held consistently and obstinately; that is, the heretic had to be given a chance to recant his views. Only when shown the error of his ways and yet held to them could an individual rightly be declared to be a heretic(Freemantle, p73). Typically, the people of the Middle Ages killed anyone who was labeled as a heretic. Moreover, they often killed them in public and horrible ways as a warning to everyone of how dangerous heretics were.
Being accused of witchcraft in the Middle Ages meant being labelled as a heretic. If accused of witchcraft, the accused was forced to "confess, even if he was innocent, through brutal torture" (Witchcraft).
