Work, Leisure, and Revival: the Integration of the 1859 Revival into the Working and Social Lives of the Townsfolk, Fermfolk, and Fisherfolk of Aberdeenshire

Abstract

Often the timing and manner of revivals have been significantly influenced by the working and leisure patterns of the contexts within which they have occurred. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scottish awakenings appeared most regularly within agrarian towns and villages during their summer communion seasons. Often they took place around the times of planting and harvest, with the result that the period between May and October was often considered the ‘holy season’. The appearance of these movements was appreciably affected by the annual agricultural cycles of work and rest. At the start of the nineteenth century the ability of these popular communion festivals to engender religious enthusiasm began to decline when, under the influence of an increasingly enlightened culture, they became more respectable and organized. In addition, new measures emerged which sought to attract the urban masses and they gradually undermined the old models of revivalism. Many of these ‘modern’ techniques were designed to compete against other social attractions for the attention and time of the city dweller. The 1859 revival hence presents an opportunity to examine how religious movements had changed and become related to the use of time by the middle of the nineteenth century.