Feast Days and Public Spectacle

Medieval town life ran on a genuinely dense calendar of feasts, processions, and public spectacle, and it’s worth remembering that religion and entertainment weren’t remotely separate categories the way they often are today.

Bruges held thirteen processions a year; Venice, sixteen. Corpus Christi, authorised by papal bull in 1264, involved carrying a consecrated host through the streets in a strict procession running from least to most wealthy participant, ending with the clergy and the mayor — York’s accompanying cycle of religious plays became one of the great civic productions of the period, though the celebration could just as easily spark rivalry: guild members rioted during Chester’s 1399 Corpus Christi festivities.

Then there’s the Fête des Fous — the Feast of Fools, held on the eve of Lent — where groups of unmarried men in each neighbourhood elected a mock “king” to lead them through a night of thoroughly sanctioned drunken revelry. Paris took this to its logical extreme: butchers paraded their best fattened ox through the city streets, with a butcher’s own young child, dressed in finery and carrying a sword and sceptre, riding on its back as king or queen of the day, before formally presenting the ox to the mayor on the steps of the city hall to officially kick off Carnival.

The Church tried, repeatedly and mostly unsuccessfully, to rein in the Feast of Fools’ worst excesses — Innocent III attempted a ban in Polish churches in 1207, and the University of Paris had a go in 1400, with limited apparent success either time. It’s a lovely reminder that “medieval piety” and “medieval party” were very often the exact same event, just viewed from different angles.

Uncover medieval intrigue—grab your copy of The Draychester Chronicles.