A simple superfical movement? Events and snow festival at Arras, Winter 1434–1435

Résumé 0

During the long, cold winter of 1434–1435, city-dwellers of Arras in the county of Artois decided to build groups of snowmen all over the city. The different topics chosen by the citizens expressed their fears, their playful ingenuity and perhaps their political opinion with a figure of the “Grande Pucelle” who might be an allusion to the captivity of Joan of Arc. Historians of the early modern period are familiar with that kind of entertainment, thanks to the works of H. Pleij for the Low Countries and more recently those of C. Judde de la Rivière about the “Snowballs’ Revolt” in Murano in 1511. Even though sledge, ice skating and snowballs are commonly associated to the winter months in medieval calendars, these aesthetic creations in Arras are less numerous for that period and could be considered as a sort of Winter Festival inspired by the Tableaux vivants and other skits usually played during civic ceremonies. Thanks to the city registers, we know that the authorities of Arras allowed this original exhibition of snowmen. There is no sign of political dissent in these snow figures; rather they are a way for historians to hear the sound of the opinions of the time and to know more about folk culture in fifteenth-century Artois. This article will examine the allegorical significance of these snow figures and will try to link the various topics chosen by citizens of Arras with the traditional cultural registers of the Low Countries ranging from biblical and classical antiquity to contemporary local folklore. With a peculiar look at the streets, markets, and buildings where the show took place, I will try to understand the social meaning of this original snow festival and, finally, how this local event sheds light on the great history of that time.