Life rhythms: Everyday life and festivals in the 18th century handwritten newsheets

Abstract

Everyday life and festival time, when the humdrum routine is suspended, are two categories of reality which correlate with different types of response. The value of the latter category was by no means missed by the 18th-century Polish editors when they compiled the contents of their avvisi. These handwritten newssheets bear witness to both their editors’ and readers’ preference for all things extraordinary, such as spectacles, pageants, ceremonies, uncommon or shocking political events. Or, in other words, ‘otherness’, ‘strangeness’ and anything that changed or challenged the familiar patterns of everyday life defi ned their information canon