On one hand many people would like to believe that the New Year will bring them professional and financial success, but on the other hand I think that most of the resolutions are not about working more, but rather about sleeping more, exercising more, eating healthier and reducing bad habits. It was also very popular in the 17 th and 18th centuries. Meanwhile, for the most part of the Middle Ages the image of passing time in art was different.
The time was just one of elements creating the Universe, which had to be perfect, because it was made by God. Also, much more popular view on the time was seeing it as an endless cycle: after every winter comes spring, the Nature dies and rises, each season provides its own crops which enable us to live, and after death there is an eternal life.
All together it was rather an optimistic approach. However, people did care about maintaining good health! According to the medieval manuals for maintaining good health, one should eat carefully chosen products according to the season, climate, age of a consumer and their temperament — I wrote about it HERE and HERE. A very important aspect was also keeping balance between work and rest.
Additionally, it was advised to keep socialising, and to engage imagination into storytelling and listening to tales. Confabulator surrounded by family and friends from a manuscript of Tacuinum Sanitatis. There was no vacation or annual leave lasting for weeks which usually only make us feel frustrated when we have to go back to work , but on the other hand people celebrated much more feasts, which made quite a lot of holidays, only distributed more evenly during the year.
Living according to the rhythm of the Nature — with no electric light, no central heating and no air condition — forced people to accept different patterns of daily activity in the winter or in the summer. January was a month of feasting: eating the supplies stored for the winter holidays I wrote about it HERE. In February we are supposed to sit by the fire and wait for the Spring. In March people start working in the fields — in most cases the illustration shows trimming vines in the vineyards.
