Feast of Fools (festum fatuorum / fête des fous)

1160

Recurring medieval clerical festival around the Feast of the Circumcision in which subdeacons took over the roles of their superiors in a ritual inversion of church hierarchy. The earliest documented church reference is by John Beleth in Paris, written between 1160 and 1164, describing subdeacons presiding; the earlier year of that range is used. Choirboys led the ceremonies on 28 December, the hinge connecting this custom to the Spanish prank day.