Why were Wakefield Mystery plays performed? what were the reasons?

Question: Why were Wakefield Mystery plays performed!? what were the reasons!?

also, could you tell me what a pageant wagon is used for!. i know that it is used for staging, so in details/

please add the sources

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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The cycle of Wakefield Mystery plays were often perfromed at the Feast Day of Corpus Christi!. This east day was created by the church to fall during the good weather summer months (can't remember if it's June or July) after they started to notice increased attendance at masses with lots of pageantry!. But Easter and Christmas often suffered from bad weather that kept folks away!.

When I taught theatre I referrred to this day as the first tailgate party!. A family could find a good spot on the village green and over the course of the next few hours, they could sit still and watch the Bible go past them in pageant form!. There'd be a creation, and a flood, and a Daniel in the Lion's Den, etc!.

For illiterate peasants, it was a great way to see the Bible although once you take the play out of the church, secular humor starts to creep in

A pageant wagon was a complex device that often had a removable interior set (3 walls) with a trap door in the floor (in case your story alluded to Hell or demons) and sometimes had a deus ex machina crane that could swing some actor around like an angel in flight!. If I'm not mistaken, in the Lawrence Olivier version of Hamlet, the visiting troupe of actors arrive at the palace in a pageant wagon!. It might be worth a look if you can get it free at a library and just check it out for a day or watch it right there!.Www@QuestionHome@Com