Happy New Year!
The Feast of Fools
Perhaps
a medieval Christmas was more serious than the commercial
celebration many of us have come to know.
However,
a medieval New Year's Day was
the one time of year EVERYBODY jumped at the chance to let loose
at the medieval Feast of Fools celebration.
The
celebrations usually began on the first of the year, every year
until the 16th century when the party was finally called
off forever...
Well,
almost.
Its origins could be traced back to pre-Christian Rome and the harvest
festival honoring the harvest god Saturn.
During
the Roman Saturnalia all class distinctions were abolished, with
slaves and their masters switching roles, and laws that normally
governed sensible behavior virtually suspended.
During
the mock services, prayer responses that would have normally included
an 'amen' were substituted by a hearty 'hee-haw'.
In medieval times, most Europeans adopted the Roman taste for a
good time by electing a Lord of Misrule, or King of Fools. This
harlequin king went by many names: King of the Bean in England,
the Abbot of Unreason in Scotland, the Abbe de la Malgouveme
in France. All had the power to call people to disorder. Cross
dressing, bawdy songs, drinking to excess, and gambling on the church
altar were only a few of the wanton acts reported.
In
some places the Festival of the Ass was commemorated. A young girl
with babe in arms entered a church riding an ass or donkey. During
the mock services, prayer responses that would have normally included
an 'amen' were substituted by a hearty 'hee-haw'.
Parisians had a particularly infamous reputation. By the 15th century,
an embarassed Catholic Church finally clamped down on the 'monstrous'
celebrations in which, centuries later, Victor Hugo wrote of Quasi
Modo as the King of Fools in Hunchback of Notre Dame.
In
fact, songwriters apparently did their homework for the recent Disney
animation, capturing the spirit of the feast with these lyrics:
Come
one, come all!
Leave your looms and milking stools
Coop the hens and pen the mules.
Come one, come all!
Close the churches and the schools
It's the day for breaking rules
Come and join the feast of Fools!
The
end was near when the Protestant Reformation finally condemned all
such politically incorrect excesses. One edict in particular claimed
that they were 'rather the unlawful superstition of gentilite [paganism]
than the pure and sincere religion of Christe' - and stricter laws
forbidding the buffoonery followed in the 1600's.
The
party was over. But in many ways it continues today some 500 years
later, in modern scenes played out in the U.S. at the Mummer's
Parade in Philadelphia, and in New
York's Times Square. Go (and as tradition dictates) have
fun...
Happy
Feast of Fools.
More
resources on The Feast of Fools:
Feast of Fools - Wikipedia
The
Catholic Encyclopedia-The Feast of Fools
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