Feast of Fools

Feast of Fools: see Fools, Feast of.

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Fools, Feast of

On or around January 1

A mock-religious festival popular during the Middle Ages in Europe, particularly France, the Feast of Fools had much in common with the Roman Saturnalia. During the holiday period around Christmas and New Year's Day, various classes of the clergy took turns reversing the normal procedures in the church. On January 1, the Feast of the Circumcision, for example, the priests were in charge; on Holy Innocents' Day, December 28, the choirboys held sway. The group to whom the day belonged would nominate a bishop and archbishop of fools, ordaining them in a mock ceremony and then presenting them to the people. Masked and dressed in women's clothing, they would dance and sing obscene songs, play dice or eat at the altar, burn old shoes in the censers, and engage in other activities that would normally be unthinkable. The revelry died out around the time of the Reformation.
The Feast of Fools was similar, but not identical, to the Feast of the Ass that was observed in France around Christmas time.

SOURCES:
DictFolkMyth-1984, p. 374
EncyChristmas-2003, p. 244
EncyRel-1987, vol. 3, p. 99; vol. 6, p. 526
FestSaintDays-1915, p. 253
OxYear-1999, p. 34
SeasFeast-1961, p. 278
(c)