The Feast of Fools & black puddings
The Feast of Fools was part of the traditional 12 days of Christmas and took place around January 1st.
It was a world turned upside down affair where authority (in Medieval times that meant religious authority) was relentlessly mocked. Needless to say over time authority hit back and there is little evidence of the feast beyond the eighteenth century.
It was more celebrated in France than England and the example below is from the former country.
Black puddings, boudin noir, were seen as delicacies in the Middle Ages which may explain their otherwise rather surprising role in the proceedings
Priests and clerks may be seen wearing masks and monstrous visages at the hours of office. They dance in the choir dressed as women, panders or minstrels. They sing wanton songs. They eat black puddings at the horn of the altar while the celebrant is saying Mass. They play at dice there. They cense with stinking smoke from the soles of old shoes. They run and leap through the church, without a blush at their own shame. Finally they drive about the town and its theatres in shabby traps and carts, and rouse the laughter of their fellows and the bystanders in infamous performances, with indecent gesture and verses scurrilous and unchaste. (1445)
(words via Gerry Bowler)
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