Notwithstanding the intervention of various Church authorities (see Feast of Fools), the popularity of the custom made it resistant.
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This custom was linked with others, such as that of the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses.
Victor Hugo recreated a picturesque account of a Feast of Fools in his 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which Quasimodo serves as King of Fools.
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One interpretation that reconciles this contradiction is that, while there can be no question that Church authorities of the calibre of Robert Grosseteste repeatedly condemned the licence of the Feast of Fools in the strongest terms, such firmly rooted customs took centuries to eradicate.
It occurs after the Feast of Fools and has been held since the sixteenth century or earlier, with a long 20th century interregnum.
Only Fools and Horses | April Fools' Day | Corpus Christi (feast) | Feast of Fools | Belshazzar's Feast | Fools Gold/What the World Is Waiting For | Blood Feast | Babette's Feast | Ship of Fools | Feast of the Cross | Feast of Saints Peter and Paul | Trimalchio's Feast and other mini-mysteries | Ship of Fools (Porter novel) | Ship of Fools (film) | Seven Separate Fools | Frank Fools Crow | Fools Gold | Fools for Light | Fools and Worthless Liars | Feast of the Rosary | Feast of the Ass | Feast Days | Feast 3: The Happy Finish | April Fools' joke | April Fools | A Feast for Crows | Trimalcho's Feast | ''The Feast of the Gods (Bellini) | The Feast of Herod (Giotto) | St. Michael's feast |
These societies, lifelong secret fraternities of unmarried townsmen who never performed in public unmasked, were dedicated to going out into the countryside and conducting dances and rituals during the Feast of Fools, at the Vernal Equinox.
The Feast of Fools had its chief vogue in the French cathedrals, but there are a few English records of it, notably in Lincoln Cathedral and Beverley Minster.
Lord of Misrule, a European court figure appointed to preside over the Feast of Fools