Historical reconstruction is a rather young, but rapidly gaining movement, whose participants seek to recreate the material and spiritual realities of everyday life, rituals, political life of a bygone era. This can be a craft, clothing, cuisine, games, weapons or combat skills (historical fencing, shooting, equestrianism) of different peoples and countries.
Unlike role-players, reenactors deal only with real-life events between Antiquity and the Modern era. They are usually united into clubs, strictly by the era being reconstructed.
Historical reconstruction festivals are designed to gather enthusiastic reconstructors who specialize in a certain segment of history. They restore the chosen era in its most spectacular manifestations. Reconstruction festivals can be dedicated to individual iconic events in history (like the celebration in 2015 of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo) or focus on recreating the general atmosphere of a particular time period.
The program of the festival of historical reconstruction necessarily includes a military component. As a rule, it is tournament fights of fencers and equestrians, demonstrative performances of military units as well as boogurt – a general fight, recreating the reality of major battles of the past.
A separate area of such events, focusing on the combat component of history, are championships in historical medieval combat.
