The centrepiece of the Feast of Fools was the election of a Lord of Misrule, who had the power to cause chaos during the celebrations. Depending upon the company at the celebrations, this chaos could include drinking, gambling, dressing up and party games.
How New Year was Celebrated in Medieval Times
The Feast of Fools was an annual celebration to mark the beginning of a new year and, during the Middle Ages, was celebrated between 1 and 6 January, depending upon the country and region.
Whilst the Feast of Fools was popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, it was celebrated with particular enthusiasm in France. In some areas of Europe, the celebrations extended to the clergy as well as the public, which led to complaints and the eventual abolition of the feast in the fifteenth century. These excesses included clergy wearing masks whilst celebrating Mass and using donkey brays instead of the normal responses during religious services.
The Origins of the Feast of Fools
The Feast of Fools had several different names which varied between countries and areas. The celebrations were sometimes known as the Feast of Asses and the Feast of the Boy Bishop. In this case, an ass and a boy bishop were the respective centrepieces of the feasts and would be crowned with much bawdiness and humour.
Where a boy bishop was selected, he appointed other officers with ridiculous names, for example, a Pope of Fools or Archbishop of Dolts.
In some areas, it was tradition, following old Roman customs, for slaves and servants to be given the day off and released from their normal services, so that they could celebrate the feast alongside their employers.
The Catholic Church and the Feast of Fools
Although the Catholic Church condemned the excesses of the revelries associated with the Feast of Fools, as with so many medieval feasts and festivals, eradicating the celebrations totally proved impossible.
Many churches tried to make compromises, allowing some aspects of the feast to remain, but trying to give these a spiritual aspect. For example, at Notre-Dame in Paris, the Lord of Misrule was allowed to carry his staff into church, until the time of the first Vespers service and was ceremonially deprived of his staff at second Vespers, with the words ‘He has put down the mighty from their seat’.
The Abolition of the Feast of Fools
Several attempts were made to ban the festivities, in different countries. Among the main pieces of legislation were writs from the Council of Basel of 1431 and a document issued by University of Paris in 1444. Early Protestants particularly disliked the excesses of the celebrations and by the sixteenth century, the feast had largely died out, having survived longest in France.
Source
Davidson, Clifford Festivals and Plays in Late Medieval Britain [Ashgate, 2007]
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