Christian academy turns into a medieval village

The historic medieval village of Knightsbridge made a one-night appearance on Thursday inside the Sisters Christian Academy gymnasium for their first-ever "Medieval Night."

Students and parents dressed as crusader knights, princesses, saintly nuns and robed monks wandered the faux streets and alleys of a fictitious Old English town on a busy spring day. Guests entering the town limits were met with a guarded money exchange stand with the sign "Get Yer Shillings Here."

Paper bills were traded for gold foil coins to use as currency for many of the activities, food and gifts offered around the city walls. Cooks laid out a tempting banquet of apple turnovers, grapes and apples, cold cider, baked chicken pieces and rolls for hungry travelers while jewelry, cloth and candle merchants and street performers introduced visitors to their particular talents or trades.

Brightly colored murals adorned the village with pictures of knights on horseback, a castle fortress and images of townsfolk visiting with their friends and acquaintances.

"We're painting crowns and then we're going to wear them," said Sophie Rawlins, 7, streaking her paper crown with purple paint at the "Make Your Own Crown" table.

Rawlins focused on her task while brother Cooper and sister Sydney looked on.

An old hag clothed in rags roamed the room with her tag-along urchin child who carried a pink rubber pig. A strolling vendor sold packages of Pontefract Cakes, the finest black licorice in all of England, toting a backpack full of peacock feathers. The herbal medicine display in the back explained some of the ancient medicinal uses of parsley, sage, blackberry and dandelions.

A purple-and-maroon tent erected over the basketball hoop was adorned with a gold cross and served as a temporary church, complete with an altar and Renaissance paintings inside.

"This is where you make your confessions to the Pope," said Albert the Monk.

School Principal Barby Martin took a picture of a black rubber rat on a wine cask and commented on the evening's crowd.

"What a strong turnout," she said. "The little girls are loving it, because of course every girl wants to be a princess and the boys love it because they keep getting into sword and jousting fights. The big murals all turned out great. They traced pictures projected onto a wall and painted them by hand. It was a long project and they worked for days and days. The windows in the castle turrets even look like candles glowing."

After a short recorder concert by The Renaissance Sisters, kindergartners performed an ancient fable, "The Old Woman and Her Pig," as a readers theater. A cast of 16 costumed kids and a honking pig told the funny rhyming tale to a laughing audience.

Alena Nore, 13, took photos and observed the festive happenings. She especially loved how everyone was playing their part and staying in character.

"It's fun," she said. "I really liked how they taught you about all the medieval medicine and love potions and had the actual herbs to touch and see. That was interesting."