Material to "Day of circumcision - 1st of January"
- our questions about the "Feast of the fools" rose out of the research about the document of 1.1.1441, which contains a note about a feast in the evening at the day of circumcision (which is 1st of January 1441). The document
is presented in our documents section. The Feast of Fools, whose sources reach to old Roman antiquity, seems a possible candidate: Mostly it was connected to 1st of January.
Basics to Feast of Fools
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Feast of Fools - 1st January
From the text: "It was known by many names -- festum fatuorum, festum stultorum, festum hypodiaconorum, to notice only some Latin variants -- and it is difficult, if not quite impossible, to distinguish it from certain other similar celebrations, such, for example, as the Feast of Asses, and the Feast of the Boy Bishop."
"It will be sufficient here to notice that the continuance of the celebration of the Feast of Fools was finally forbidden under the very severest penalties by the Council of Basle in 1435, and that this condemnation was supported by a strongly-worded document issued by the theological faculty of the University of Paris in 1444, as well as by numerous decrees of various provincial councils. In this way it seems that the abuse had practically disappeared before the time of the Council of Trent."
Parallels-
Feast of Asses - the Feast of Asses (14th January) is said to have partly emerged in the Feast of Fools.
- Feast of the Boy Bishop - 6th December (St. Nicholas), mainly in England, was suppressed in 1431 on the continent.
- All Fool's Day - mainly about 1st of April, but sees some connections to the older Feast of Fools.
"Some historians maintain that the development of All Fool's Day is linked to the medieval Feast of Asses or Feast of Fools, and the latter certainly was a most popular French festival. It does, however, seem unlikely that such a feast day was associated in any manner with the New Year in this instance, since such celebrations occurred at the time of the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1 which, during medieval times, was not the date of the New Year (under the Julian calendar, the New Year was celebrated in March). With the passage of time, it is far from easy to now distinguish between the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses, which may also have been celebrated in January. Many church dignitaries were honored on specific feast days during the Christmas season...the deacons on December 26 (Saint Stephen's Day), the priests on December 27 (Saint John's Day), the choristers and mass-servers on December 28 (Day of the Holy Innocents) and the sub-deacons on January 1 (Feast of the Circumcision). Later, the feast of the sub-deacons was replaced by the Guild of Fools, the customs and buffoonery of which then became associated with the sub-deacons' festivities and most likely had their origins in earlier Pagan customs, such as the Roman Saturnalia (celebrated in December), when slaves were granted temporary equality with their masters. During the Feast of Asses, the preacher impersonated the Hebrew prophets while arguing the Divinity of Christ. This sermon evolved into a drama, including actors and a procession which incorporated the riding of an ass (most probably symbolized by a hobby horse) into the church. This lavish spectacle was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by the parishioners...so much so, that it eventually developed separately until the festival became known as the Feast of Asses and, in its turn, gradually became absorbed into the Feast of Fools. The Feast of Fools was later outlawed by the Church in some areas due to the licentious behavior of the congregation during this time."
- Medieval Dance (from 1935, unclear author) - is mainly about dancing, but contains in a short note:
"Thus, in 1445, Eustache de Menil, dean of the faculty of theology at the University of Paris, addressed the bishops and chapters of France on the abuses of the Fete des Fous. He denies that such games are relics of antiquity. They are devices of the Devil, the toils of original sin. But the Feast of Fools at Rheims, in 1490, was occasion for a satirical onslaught by vicars and choir-boys on the fashion of hoods worn by the bourgeoises. This led to anti-ecclesiastical reprisals. In a sense, the Feast of Fools was a safety-valve by which once a year people felt free of the sacred system, and in unrepressed and sacrilegious parody, exhausted themselves of stored-up boredom and rancor against the liturgy, its class of celebrants and everything for which it stood. It was a rare holiday for the lay clergy against their superiors, and was paid for by levies on its watchers. In our news-reels we constantly see newsboys, caddies or Wall Street runners who are made Mayors for a day as sheepish symbols of equality. At the Feast of the Ass, a live donkey or a priest disguised as one, or a man on a hobby-horse (as in the Morris-Dance) was dressed in vestments and put through a mock Mass."
Decree of Basel, 1435
- The Council of Basel at 9th of June in 1435, in the 21st session, gave a decree, which probably mainly aimed on the feast of fools:
On not performing spectacles in churches
In some churches, during certain celebrations of the year, there are carried on various scandalous practices. Some people with mitre, crozier and pontifical vestments give blessings after the manner of bishops. Others are robed like kings and dukes; in some regions this is called the feast of fools or innocents, or of children. Some put on masked and theatrical comedies, others organize dances for men and women, attracting people to amusement and buffoonery. Others prepare meals and banquets there. This holy synod detests these abuses. It forbids ordinaries as well as deans and rectors of churches, under pain of being deprived of all ecclesiastical revenues for three months, to allow these and similar frivolities, or even markets and fairs, in churches, which ought to be houses of prayer, or even in cemeteries. They are to punish transgressors by ecclesiastical censures and other remedies of the law. The holy synod decrees that all customs, statutes and privileges which do not accord with these decrees, unless they add greater penalties, are null. (source)
Prohibition 1444 in Paris and Discussion
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La Fête des Fous: La faculté de Théologie de Paris en 1440 (errat : should be 1444)
prend la défense de la Fête
des Fous. Source: Philip Pickett
Traduction DECCA 1992 Elizabeth Rhodes
Pro: "Nos éminents ancêtres ont permis cette fête. Pourquoi devrait-elle
être interdite? Nous ne fêtons pas sérieusement, mais par pure
plaisanterie, pour nous divertir, selon la tradition, pour qu'au moins
une fois par an nous nous abandonnions à la folie, qui est notre
seconde nature et semble innée en nous. Les tonneaux de vin
éclateraient si l'on n'ouvrait pas de temps en temps la bonde pour les
aérer. C'est pourquoi nous nous livrons à des bouffonneries pendant
quelques jours, pour pouvoir ensuite nous consacrer au service de Dieu
avec une ferveur d'autant plus grande". Source: Le Fête de l'Ane Traditions du Moyen Age, Clementic Consort, Direction René Clementic.
Arles, France 1980.
Contra : "En 1444 encore, il y eut une tentative officielle de réglementer
cette cérémonie, avec la déclaration que les offices devaient être
célébrés avec dévotion et référence, et sans dérision ni dissonance.
Mais l'ordre précise ensuite que le premier chantre des fous ne doit
pas être arrosé plus de trois sceaux d'eau pendant les Vêpres". Source: La Fête des fous de Philippe Pickett p.14
Allowance in Bourgogne 1454
- Source :
"Le concile de Bâle ayant condamné la fête des Fous (1435), Charles
VII fait
droit à un avis de la Sorbonne et l'interdit (1444). Le duc de
Bourgogne l'autorise cependant, à la demande des vignerons (1454)".
Feasts of Fools : dice and card playing are involved
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Source :
La Fête des fous donnait lieu à des cérémonies extrêmement bizarres.
On élisait un évêque et même dans quelques églises un pape des fous.
Les prêtres, barbouillés de lie, masqués et travestis de la manière
la plus folle, dansaient en entrant dans le choeur et y chantaient
des chansons obscènes; les diacres et les sous-diacres mangeaient des
boudins et des saucisses sur l'autel , devant le célébrant,
jouaient sous ses yeux aux cartes et aux dés,
et brûlaient dans les encensoirs de vieilles savates. Ensuite on
les charriait tous par les rues, dans des tombereaux pleins
d'ordures, ou ils prenaient des poses lascives, et faisaient des
gestes impudiques …Ce n'était pas seulement dans les cathédrales et
les collégiales que ces joyeusetés se célébraient: elles étaient
aussi pratiquées dans les monastères des deux sexes. (MILLIN , Monuments inédits, Tome II, pp. 345 et suiv.)
- In the Middle Ages and until at least 1444, there are attested
traditions of "Feast of fools" with things such as "Drinking Bout in
the Cathedral Porch" or "Mass of the Asses, Drunkers and Gamblers". Source: missing
- "Dans l'optique d'un renversement toutes les valeurs, cette fête
était celle du bas clergé, des sous-diacres qui cette fois-çi avaient
droit à la parole .... Dans les cathédrales, on nommait un évêque bouffon.
celui-ci célébrait aors un office solemnel et donnait la bénédiction.
Les pr^tres déguisés pénétraient alors dans le choeur en dansant et
chantaient des chansons grivoises.
Les sous-diacres mangeaient des saucisses sur l'autel, sous le nez du
prêtre officiant; ils jouaient aux cartes et aux dés sous ses yeux
au lieu d'encens, ils mettaient dans l'encensoir de vieilles smelles
et des excréments, pour que l'odeur pestilentielle lui monte dans
les narines. Après la messe, chacun dansait et courait dans l'eglise selon son bon
plaisir et se livrait à la plus grande débauche.
... certains allaient jusqu'à se séshabiller complètement.
ils s'asseyaient sur des chariots chargés d'excréments et se
faisaient conduire à travers la ville, jetant des ordures sur la
population qui les accompagnaient". Source: La Fête des fous de Philippe Pickett p.14
Feast of Games at 1st of January in Bockholt, Germany
- The following quote is taken from
Vom Adelsspiel zum Bürgervergnügen - Zur sozialen Relevanz des mittelalterlichen Schachspiels
von RAINER A. MÜLLER, Eichstätt , page 67. The German text contains the information, that the city of Bockholt (= Bocholt, lower Rhine, Germany ?) had city rules, after which the evening of 1st and 6th January were reserved for games. The author Rainer Müller calls "Murray, p. 440, note 63" his source for this passage. Murray is known as an important author in chess literature.
A date for the document is not given, but maybe ca. 1380. A request to the author stayed unanswered. If somebody has this Murray-text or knows a library, where it is and takes a look .... In the same passage it is forbidden to play games for money. A "Fool's feast" or something comparable is not mentioned.
Dezidierte Aussagen wie sie das Nürnberger Satzungsbuch oder eine Verordnung der Stadt Bockholt, beide aus dem 14. Jahrhundert, enthalten, sind eher die Ausnahme. Im einschlägigen Nürnberger Paragraphen von 1381 lesen wir, daß das Spielen um Geld untersagt oder doch stark eingeschränkt sei – nachdem man bereits 1370 das Würfelspiel prinzipiell verboten hatte –, daß dochVolksbelustigungen auf der Hallerwiese (rennen mit pferden, schiessen mitarmbrusten, carten, schofzagel, pretspil und kugeln) ausdrücklich erlaubt seien.52
Bockholts Rat meint zum gleichen Problem: Allen Börgern, Inwoners, Kindern und Knappen is vom older Insettunge des gemeinen Stades verboden, dat nemand döbelen, crucemunten, of enig Spil spelen sol, dar man Geld meda winnen, of verleuren mach, uppe geiner Steden ofte tiden, buten often binnen Bockholt netgesagt, schaktafln,werftafln bozelen (Kegel) oft dergliken ...53 Der Neujahrsabend und der Abend des Dreikönigfestes werden gleichzeitig als besondere Spielabende deklariert Vorsichtsmaßnahmen also, deren unverhohlene Absicht darin bestand, einer ungezügelten Ausgelassenheit durch zeitliche und örtliche Terminierung Einhalt zu gebieten.
1st of January was not always the begin of the year
- German names of different styles of different starting dates of the year
(source)
- Stil: Bezeichnung für den julianischen oder gregorianischen Kalender
- Alter Stil: Bezeichnung für den julianischen Kalender und die Osterberechnung nach den Regeln vor 1582
- Neuer Stil: Bezeichnung für den gregorianischen Kalender und die Osterberechnung nach den Regeln der Reform von 1582
- Angabe über den Beginn des Jahres
- Altrömischer Stil: Jahresanfang am 1. März, in Venedig bis 1797 in amtlichem Gebrauch
- Annunciationsstil: Jahresanfang am 25. März (Tag Mariae Verkündigung)
- Florentiner Stil (stilus Florentinis): Annunciationsstil mit Jahreanfang nach unserem heutigen Jahresanfang.
- Pisaner Stil (stilus Pisanus): Annunciationsstil mit Jahreanfang vor unserem heutigen Jahresanfang.
- Byzantinischer Stil: Jahresanfang am 1. September vor unserem heutigen Jahresanfang
- Circumcisionsstil: Jahresanfang am 1. Januar (Tag der Beschneidung des Herrn)
- Osterstil: Jahresanfang zu Ostern, mit wechselnden Jahresanfängen und unterschiedlichen Jahreslängen
- Venetianischer Stil: Jahresanfang am 1. März
- Verkündigungsstil: siehe: Annunciationsstil
- Weihnachtsstil: Jahresanfang am 25. Dezember (Tag der Geburt des Herrn) vor unserem heutigen Jahresanfang, im Mittelalter verbreitetster Jahresanfang
(collected by Alain Bougearel and autorbis)
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