The Middle Age and Renaissance

In the European legacy, middle age was an era from 4^th century to 15^th century. The day to day life in the middle age is hard to contemplate. In the middle period, pop culture revolved around interesting medieval moments during the knights of battle (Dahmus p 47). All the same, life for teenagers in the middle age was just normal life and all the activities were guided by the farming calendar. A lot of time was spent in the farming fields to enable people to grow enough food to feed the population for a whole year. Upon harvests, people would gather in the churches to celebrate for good harvests. This would shortly be followed by the peasants going to rest until the next sowing season.

The middle age culture also revolved around social activities and it was expected that every person in the medieval city would attend. Some of the activities involved entertainment from the acrobats and manufacturers selling their goods. In addition, the peasant would take part in games of chances held at the public places; there would be tournaments for knights who came from near and abroad (Robinson p 278). As if not enough, there would be medieval weddings where the whole lot in the town would celebrate. There was also superstition during medieval period that revolved around science. The business men who used to travel abroad would come with stories about culture in other places like Africa, Asia and the Middle East. As far as food was concerned, middle age period came up with new flavor from western side of Europe. This eventually led to the medieval community evolving from dark ages to renaissance of work of art and education.

Renaissance is another term which can be used to mean rebirth. It is used to mark a period of many achievements related to culture. This was brought about by the renewed interest in the world of art and concepts of Rome and ancient Greek (Dahmus p 77). The main concept behind rebirth lies at the belief that studying of art and intellectual treasures of Greco-roman perspective, supported by humanism, can go to greater heights of enlightment.

The coming of renaissance in the middle ages changed the live of human being for good. People changed their views towards themselves, there was introduction of education and people with similar beliefs came into existence. For this reason, many individuals see renaissance era as a unique period in the middle age. It all began in Italy in 11^th and 13^th centuries. The way of life during this period was different from life in the middle age. One of the key transitions that came with renaissance is individualism. Individuals during this period saw themselves as belonging to a certain race or an ordinary group. They never imagined that their life was any meaningful before until the start of renaissance. In the entire 12^th century, the views of people in Western Europe changed for good. They started seeing themselves as people who were capable of going to greater heights in life.

The mindset of the entre population changed and there came new ideas which make a difference between renaissances from those dark days in middle age. When humanity started looking at himself as important, discoveries started streaming from all directions which aimed at improving areas art and education. Within a short span, Western Europe took the world by storm and this made many people to see that renaissance and middle ages are two important eras in the legacy of the world. The quick revival of education and literature is another reason that backs up the concept that renaissance was very different and not just any other era in the middle age period. Artists who lived in the 15^th century did not perceive themselves as part of middle age. They held onto the idea that, literature did not advance during the middle age and that it got advanced afterwards. Men like Leonardo daVinci who lived during the renaissance period, expressed their interest in several areas. At the beginning of 12^th century, many scholars began coming up (Robinson p 282).

During the renaissance period, there arose so many scholars of Greek and Roman origin. When the movement commenced, there was civilization of Greeks and Romans. This happened not only in Europe but also in other parts of Europe. In Italy specifically, the era of barbarism had already passed and humanity began to go back to the ancient culture. To Italians, the Latin language was on of the simplest and they could not hesitate to document all that had taken place. The current spirit by Italians came as a result of combining different elements among them political systems brought by Germans.

To conclude, the renaissance was not only meant to benefit the people in Western Europe but it was shared in all the great nations of the world. However, something worthy noting is that, renaissance began in Italy. It was in this country that vital qualities which differentiate the modern from the old and medieval nature were created. Italy is credited with creating a spiritual cultural atmosphere and a world where intellectuals were given a chance to discover what changed the way of looking at things. As many in the world would perceive at Jews as the pioneers   of divine revelation, so are the Italians as the unique pioneers of renaissance. In all aspects of life, it is them who passed on the baton to other nations and the entire world got civilized (Robinson p 289).