To add another chapter to the strange reality that was the Middle Ages, from traditions to culture, the Feast of Fools took place in the late twelfth century and early thirteenth century, in France, always on January 1st, and aimed at reversing the roles of Church officials, or anyone in a position of power in relation to the other.
This ritual The ecclesiastical principle was based on the biblical principle predicted in Corinthians 1:27, of the Christian Bible, that God chose the follies of the world to put the wise to shame. Thus, the celebration was considered a day of liberation, when everything could be done without the fear of judgment or excommunication.
A moment of freedom
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As the celebration focused on changing places, the bishop or pope was re-elected, and could even be one of the altar boys or members of the church choir, who for a whole day could rule and overturn with full powers over various aspects of the institution.
Despite how catastrophic this may be mean nowadays, at that time it was all taken as a joke, with texts claiming that it was a fun and very festive moment. The priests wore masks with monstrous features at work hours, danced in women’s dresses, painted themselves and uttered words and songs that would cause their banishment from ecclesiastical functions. All kinds of forbidden food were eaten without fear, as well as games considered sinful and secular were played without shame or fear of reprisals.
In the two following centuries, between 1160 and 1172, the Feast dos Tolos expanded to some 20 cathedrals and collegiate churches in northern France, flourishing in some cities for more than three centuries before gradually succumbing to the repressions of the Reformation period.
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In the book Sacred Folly , the scholar Max Harris traced the history of the celebration in three different locations in France, and pointed out that he could find no reports of disorder, only distant fears of people who they thought that one day the party could get out of control or delegitimize the power of the Church.
However, all that happened was a reaffirmation of the biblical meaning present in the page. Corinthians’ statement that God loves everyone, even those who are in an inferior position.
This is specified as literally as possible in the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame , by the writer Victor Hugo, when Quasimodo is carried away by the festivities and crowned “King of Fools”.
Fear
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As time passes, it is likely that the celebration has become increasingly inadmissible due to the way it took place on the streets, specifically in the poorest areas of society, where people used to manifest behaviors considered “lewd, promiscuous and blasphemous”.
Secularization arrived with more force in the first half of the 15th century, when there were a series of more ostensible attacks on the Feast of Fools, banned by members of the Church during the Ecumenical Council of Basel, in 1435; then in the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII of France, in 1438; and, finally, in a letter issued in 1445 by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris.
Nevertheless, the party only grew outside the churches, creating rules and traditions. According to Harris, the repression of the party had a lot to do with the lack of a sense of humor and the fear on the part of people in positions of power of having their authority questioned during a reversal of values - even if it was a fake.
