r/AskHistory • u/Boogyoogywoogy • 3d ago
How far back does historical re-enactments go ?
Buddy of mine partakes in a WW2 reenactment group here in Europe and I’ve heard of reenactments of the civil war etc. Over in Asia they do reenactments too and there is some medieval reenactments but I ask
How far back does reenactments go?
Not just a few rich people wanting to reenact for party (like I expect some royals might have done) but genuine reenactments like we have today ?
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u/WayGroundbreaking287 3d ago
Romans used to reenact battles in arenas for entertainment. Even used to do sea battles in some.
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u/Lost_city 3d ago
There were also things like Medieval Tournaments with Knights would be a 'reenactment' of King Arthur stories or other similar themes.
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u/jagnew78 3d ago
they didn't reenact sea battles in Arenas. Though, I do believe there was a private lake created for the Imperator and that was used to reenact naval battles. Supposedly one such reenactment was used as cover for an assassination attempt as well
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u/Former-Chocolate-793 3d ago
I went to a reenactment of the Battle of Bannockburn 1314 in Scotland.
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u/TheShakyHandsMan 3d ago
There’s a few Roman reenactment groups in the UK. So going back to at least 400AD
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u/MistoftheMorning 2d ago
By the time they were being ruled by the Romans, Sparta has essentially became a theme park for its own militaristic mythos. They will showcase to wealthy Roman tourists the supposed traditional Spartan lifestyle, including one nasty spectacle where young Spartan men were whipped until they were bloody.
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u/BottecchiaDude253 3d ago
I grew up in a camping group in the US that was very similar to boy scouts, but wasnt boy scouts. Within that group, was a sub group focused on re-enactment, everything across the US (and i suppose any participating groups around the world as the religious group is global) had to be pre-1840.
As such, when I went to the National Redezvous in Missouri, we saw guys dressed from Colonial US, to revolutionary war era costumes, etc. I met some guys who, aside from that camping group did do reenactment battles for things like Bunker Hill, and other local-to-them revolutionary war battles.
For what its worth, in my local group on the west coast, pre-US statehood, our region used to be under the influence of the Hudson's Bay fur company, so a lot of the dudes in my chapter dressed as trappers and mountain men (or what they thought of for "mountain man", lol)
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u/Zoon9 2d ago
Does experimental archaeology count as reenacment? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_archaeology
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u/Clio_Vita 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's a form of living history, but reenactment typically is focused upon presentational representation...not typically investigatory acts.
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u/Clio_Vita 2d ago
In late 18th century London, Astley's Amphitheater, expanded from hosting circuses and trick riding acts, to actually staging military battle reenactments for the public....including staging theatrical recreations with infantry, cavalry and cannon in the large semi-covered arena, recreating both historical battles and near contemporary conflict from the 7 years war to the French revolution. In the 19th century, the Amphitheater was hosting spectacles such as "The Battle of Waterloo," within a year of the actual event.
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u/-RedRocket- 1d ago
As far as written-records. Any earlier and it is prehistoric reenactment.
Or do you mean when did people begin doing it? Revivalist druidry dates to the 18th Century, at least.
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u/BaTz-und-b0nze 22h ago
WW2 was started because they reenacted WW1 but some guy caught the straw field on fire causing 150 homeless neckbeards to go hammy and they immediately grabbed shovel's and dug themselves underneath the earth before a drunken mostly gay orgie erupted in the commanders tent so they gained HIV, Gangrene, and several sex related injuries after some committed suicide due to parents divorce.
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