Recreation and Recreationists Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Si nce ancie nt times , various forms of recreation have developed and evolved. Studies of societies such as the bushmen of the Kalahari and the Australian aboriginals have estimated that acquiring shelter, clothing, and food would have taken up only half their waking time. This would have left much time for the perfecting of hunting skills, the making of tools and ornamental items, and the maintenance of strong folklore traditions. In the Neolithic period, there was also cave painting, and, eventually, the making of ornaments. It seems likely that play-acting and music would also have been recreational activities in ancient societies, as well as athletics and also some competitive hunting techniques such as using bows and arrows, spears and the like.

In large empires, there was a need for major recreational activities of craftwork and sport. Although families had often kept cats and dogs, the former to keep down the number of mice or rats, and the latter for protection, the Egyptians and others started keeping pets for their own sake, with the great Egyptian love of cats, and many different types of cat being bred.

For the Greeks and Romans, sports included athletics, ball-games, swimming, rowing, hoop-bowling, weight-lifting and chariot-racing. The Greeks also maintained the Olympic Games from possibly the 12th century B.C.E., to the 4th century C.E., by which time it was run by the Romans. Among many recreations during the Greco-Roman world was travelling, especially to shrines, oracles, or places with “healing” waters.

In China and nearby countries, similar recreations and hobbies existed, with minor variations. There were also interactions with neighboring civilizations and visiting delegations. Chinese and Indian pilgrims also travelled to holy temples, especially Buddhist shrines, and visited the house of Confucius. With the advent of the Christian era in the West, traveling on pilgrimages to shrines, distant churches, tombs of saints, and further afield to Rome and to Jerusalem became popular. Along these pilgrimage routes, hotels and hostels started to appear. In Rome various hostels were converted for English, French, Scottish, and Irish visitors.

Well-to-do men in Europe took part in mostly outdoor sporting activities including archery, throwing the javelin, rowing, running, jumping, wrestling, boxing, and swimming. and more dangerous sports such as jousting. In China, there was judo and taekwando, and in Japan kendo and other martial arts. For women throughout the world, sewing, embroidery, needlework, and the making of tapestries were important pastimes. Village fairs and fetes also brought out many other activities with clowns, jugglers, fire-eaters, sword-swallowers, soothsayers, fortune tellers and others entertaining people with jokes and stories. Animals such as bears and monkeys were also used for amusement.

From the early part of the 18th century it was common for many wealthy young men in Europe to take part in what became known as the “Grand Tour.” British, French, German, Italian and Russian men travelled around Europe visiting important places such as Paris, Florence, Venice, and Rome. Later, the development of the railway network encouraged many people to use the train for traveling.

In 1841, while the railway network was still being built, Thomas Cook established a tourism company which allowed British, and later other travelers to visit Egypt and other parts of the Near East. The advent of paid holiday leave saw the establishment of many holiday resorts on beaches and elsewhere for middle-class travelers with small savings and a few days or more in holidays, to relax. Although spa resorts had existed from prehistoric times, the tourist boom from the mid-19th century made places such as Bath in England, and Vichy and Lourdes in France, popular. Seaside resorts were also established for countries with coastlines. For those such as Switzerland which were landlocked, there were mountain resorts. Although many people were content to sunbathe, beach games such as volleyball, swimming, surfing, and life-saving became popular at many beaches.

It was not long before many guidebooks started to be published about travel, leading to its further popularization. With the fall in airfares from the 1970s, Rough Guide and the Lonely Planet started producing guidebooks for most of the world, along with Fieldings, Frommers, and many other companies. Modern mass tourism has had great cultural and ecological consequences, however, and recent trends have led to the development of the still imperfect solution of ecotourism.

Besides travel and many indoor forms of recreation, which run the gamut from stamp collecting to computer games, today many people enjoy outdoor pursuits such as walking and gardening. Interest in tropical gardens has led many people in more temperate climates to try to reproduce or imitate tropical gardens in Britain, France, and the United States. For sports, there are a wide range of sports which are played either socially, or with local teams, as well as town/city and national teams. These include baseball, diving, football, soccer, swimming, tennis, and golf.

Bibliography:

John Arlott, The Oxford Companion to Sports & Games (Oxford University Press, 1975);
Piers Brendon, Thomas Cook: 150 Years of Popular Tourism (Secker and Warburg, 1991);
A. Harris, Sport in Greece and Rome (Thames and Hudson, 1972);
Anthony Hern, The Seaside Holiday (The Cresset Press, 1967);
Christopher Hibbert, The Grand Tour (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969);
Michael Loewe, Everyday Life in Early Imperial China (Batsford, 1968);
John Scarne, Encyclopedia of Games (Constable & Company, 1976);
Malcolm Todd, Everyday Life of the Barbarians, Goths, Franks and Vandals (B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1972); Paul Werner, Life in Rome in Ancient Times (Liber, 1977).