About re-enactment

What is ”historical re-enactment”? 

Historical re-enactment is simply the representation of a battle or even of an entire period! A re-enactor is supposed to bring the period of their interest into life, while acting as the person they have chosen (e.g. a soldier from the Greek Army). 

Anyone who loves history can take part! It only needs time, patience, passion and money (we will analyse this later on).

Those are still not enough though. To become a re-enactor you must be able to live as the people of the period you have chosen used to live and have a love for adventure as well. Imagine that you are an actor who is so talented that simply lives the life of the character he is acting as!

What about the money?

Money is a reason why people choose not to get into re-enactment. Everyone thinks that in order to take part in it you are supoosed to spend a fortune in uniforms and gear. Which is true, in some points but it all depends on the role you have chosen! There are obviously roles that don’t need too much money. If you truly want to get into re-enactment you have to do some research around the prices and of course around the uniforms as well! Don’t end up re-enacting as an American soldier while wearing a German jacket!

What should i study in order to begin?

Everything. You need to be a historian to be a re-enactor… I’m obviously kidding.

To become a re-enactor you must be willing to learn and love to study! The more you know about the period you have chosen, the better! That’s why you have to choose something you really like so that you don’t feel bored while studying or re-enacting. NEVER join a re-enactment team if you don’t truly like it! If you feel that you are being pressured to learn things, it means that you aren’t into it. Choose a period and a role that suits you to have a beautiful result! 

Greece and re-enactment

WWII Greek Army 1940 Reenacting Team

As you can imagine, re-enactment is very popular abroad (just for the record, re-enacting has NOTHING to do with LARP or Cosplay). 

Greek Red Cross

Non-political?

Moving on, we will see whether politics and morals have anything to do with re-enactment. A man that decides to re-enact as a soldier from the SS is definitely not a Nazi. That has nothing to do with re-enactment (most of the times…) and it would be better if we could just respect each other. Yes, there are people who support specific ideas and they take it out on re-enactment. However, there are also some really well-organized re-enacting teams with their only aim being the spreading of history and nothing else.