Parrot Festival in France

The holiday is originated from the Middle Ages, when, seized by fortress walls, from a life far from comfort and carelessness, the townspeople rushed with childish ecstasy at the height of mass fun. And the reasons for this were a great many - the calendar of the Catholic era was full of red days in honor of the city's patrons, the guild, the profession.
Next to these memorable dates, there were peacefully coexisting festivals, 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, the festival of shooters.

Homeland of shooting competitions is Flanders. There, under the walls of the city of Courtre, the people's militia for the first time broke the color of the French knighthood and the myth of the invulnerability of the horsemen encased in armor. A miracle-weapon of the townspeople was a crossbow. He was simple in circulation, and time for mastering his secrets was much less than for the attainment of knightly science. Shooting competitions were called parrot drinking. Why parrots? The parrot is the favorite of the German people. Probably, in this strange bird lived a memory of the exploits of the Crusaders. Together with the German colonists, the parrot got to all other countries. On a warm spring day, the city streets were filled with a festive noise. At the head of the procession was the winner of last year's competitions. Servants carried the culprit of the celebration - a silvered and painted rainbow in all colors.

On the square the main structure was "roost" for the cherished target. His height was amazing - they built a rooster of masters on ship masts. Of course, to become the winner, only the most accurate shooter could be the king of the holiday. The winner relied on the title, the silver double of the target, the royal treat. The modern celebration is not much different from the medieval one. Only the parrot is made of foam rubber, but the arrows still ring.

Basedoncalend.ru