The Lord of Misrule - redux.

Bosch's Ship of Fools was directly

related to the Feast of Fools.

Works for me.

Christmas season.
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If you partied and celebrated throughout Advent you are probably one of those who say, "I'm so glad Christmas is over!"  Or you could be one of those experiencing some sort of post holiday depression.  That's too bad - kind of like the foolish virgins who used up all of their oil before the bridegroom arrived, and then got locked out when the wedding feast began.  The feast of Christmas really only begins on December 25, and it consists of twelve days:  The Twelfth Day - traditional Epiphany - initiates carnival season, which ends on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday - Mardi Gras.
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Now the Lord of Misrule goes back to Medieval times, the origins of which are traced to pagan Rome, where it was celebrated for the feast of Saturnalia.   The festival tended to become rather debauched of course, and later was often condemned by the Church.  Perhaps a re-adaptation of the custom, with discretion of course, could help people celebrate the Christmas season more appropriately.  Such as resisting the temptation to be so caught up in the manufactured commercial observance of the holiday, which more or less ends on Christmas day night - for those who fell for the hype and partied through Advent that is.
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History...
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"The Lord of Misrule, known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots, was an officer appointed by lot at Christmas to preside over the Feast of Fools. The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant or sub-deacon appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying, in the pagan tradition of Saturnalia. The Church held a similar festival involving a Boy Bishop. The celebration of the Feast of Fools was outlawed by the Council of Basel that sat from 1431, but it survived to be put down again by the Catholic Queen Mary I in England in 1555." - Read more.
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Anyway - if my posts are a tad more misrulish during Christmastide - you now know why... and are hereby  forewarned.

Larry started it.