Feast of Fools
Lord of Misrule
A Day of Irreverence and Poor Decisions
About Feast of Fools
Once a year, on the Feast of Fools, we turn the household hierarchy on its head. Today, nominate a child, the family dog, or even a stuffed animal to serve as the reigning monarch of your home, declaring whimsical edicts (ice cream for breakfast!) and issuing “punishments” for made-up infractions. Forget yesterday’s hard decisions or serious conversations. Today is about letting loose, eating with abandon, and groveling before a child-king. Whether you’re donning mismatched clothing, holding an impromptu no-talent talent show, or recreating a McDonald’s-style playland in your living room, it’s a day for unserious, non-adult folly.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Declare someone in your household the Lord of Misrule and follow their absurd edicts for an hour.
(B) Recommended
Organize a family or friends’ day of silly competitions: a backwards race, worstdressed contest, or even a ‘mock trial’ where the pets or kids are judged (gently) for minor ‘crimes.’
(C) High effort
Host a full-scale Feast of Fools dinner party with deliberately chaotic seating arrangements, mismatched tableware, and a rotating king or queen who rules for 15 minutes at a time. Make sure everyone comes dressed in foolish attire.
Inspiration
The Feast of Fools is a terrible idea. Children make awful monarchs. They have no sense of proportion, no grasp of due process. Their edicts lean toward sugar and anarchy, and their punishments are swift and often bizarre. The younger ones are selfish and merciless; the older ones are gleefully cruel. See: every episode of Game of Thrones featuring Joffrey Baratheon. And still we celebrate the Feast of Fools. Why? First, because it’s funny. Second, yesterday was Crossroads and we’ve earned a break. And finally, to honor all the fools before us who thought it would be funny, too. In medieval Europe, the Feast of Fools let the powerless stage a coup, for a day. In France and England, the clergy handed over the reins to “boy bishops,” who paraded through cathedrals, delivered mock sermons, and presided over ridiculous ceremonies while actual priests looked
Yuletide (12 Days of Christmas) on with a mixture of amusement and dread. In England, a Lord of Misrule was crowned to oversee holiday debauchery, turning noble courts into burlesques of themselves. These antics usually took place during Christmastide, offering a licensed release valve for the tightly wound social order. Today, we offer the same release valve in the name of fun. Just be careful whom you crown. That six-year-old innocent lamb has a mean streak waiting to be unleashed.
Adornments
Watch
King of Hearts (1966)
A gentle French comedy in which the inmates literally run the asylum. Set during World War I, it follows a bewildered Scottish soldier who finds a town deserted except for escaped lunatics crowned as its new royals.
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988)
A delightfully backward holiday special in which the famously cynical Edmund Blackadder starts out saintly and generous—only to turn greedy and heartless after ghostly visitations show him the advantages of bad behavior.
Listen
The World Turned Upside Down (Traditional)
An English ballad from the 1640s that has become emblematic of flipping the social script. Legend holds that when Christmas was banned by Puritan authorities, this protest song sprang up to lampoon the joyless decree.
Entry of the Gladiators by Julius Fučík
If the title doesn’t ring a bell, its brassy notes surely will: this 1904 military march evolved into the classic circus theme that heralds clowns into the ring. Originally composed as a triumphant fanfare, Fučík’s composition gained the ironic second life of underscoring slapstick pratfalls and sideshow antics.
Read
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Twain’s satirical novel sends a 19th-century Yankee engineer back to medieval Camelot, where he cheerfully turns knighthood on its head. Armed with common sense and Yankee ingenuity, he sets himself up as a “wizard” among King Arthur’s clueless courtiers and proceeds to modernize the realm.
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship by Arthur Ransome
The story of a peasant youth—deemed the “fool of the world”—who sets out to win the Tsar’s daughter. Aided by kindness, magic, and a ragtag crew of oddball companions, he builds a fantastical flying ship and succeeds where his clever older brothers failed.
Eat
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
A literal dessert for a day about reversals. This vintage American favorite flips convention by baking its caramelized topping on the bottom of the pan—only to be dramatically inverted before serving.