This book studies festivals celebrated in Eastern Baltic towns (in the region called Livonia) from c. 1350 until 1550 and provides a comprehensive analysis of local customs set in the wider comparative context of festival culture of medieval Europe. Livonia was a common name used for the territories that covered present-day Estonia and Latvia. The birth of towns in Latvia was a result of the German-Danish conquest in the early thirteenth century and the German expansion eastwards. The towns in Livonia became essentially German: they were granted German city laws and the upper and middle classes consisted of German merchants and artisans. Four largest cities in Livonia-Riga, Reval, Dorpat and Pernau-became members of the Hanseatic League. Hanseatic merchants were the main mediators of festival customs in the Baltic Sea region. The merchants' festivals in medieval Baltic towns had much in common with those celebrated in central German areas, particularly in the Hanseatic towns of northern Germany. The major part of this book is devoted to the main annual festivals of the year: Christmas, Carnival, the popinjay shoot, and the May Count celebrations.