The Lord of Misrule and the Feast of Fools


Pieter Bruegel, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (1559)
"In medieval England, the Lord of Misrule was an officer appointed by lot at Christmas to preside over the Feast of Fools - a riotous banquet where the central idea seems always to have been a brief social revolution in which power, dignity and impunity is briefly conferred on those in a subordinate position. The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant appointed to oversee these Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness, wild partying and general licentiousness. The appointment of a Lord of Misrule comes from antiquity. In ancient Rome a Lord of Misrule was appointed for the feast of Saturnalia, in the guise of the god Saturn. During this time the ordinary rules of life were subverted as masters served their slaves, and the offices of state were held by slaves."
The Oddment Emporium
W - Lord of Misrule
W - Feast of Fools

2010 May: Peasant
2011 March: "The Harvesters", Pieter Bruegel the Elder
2012 February: The Mill and the Cross - Lech Majewski

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