I think we (Queer Christians) should bring back the Feast of Fools! Here's my pitch:
Medieval Christians celebrated the days following Christmas with societal inversion. If God became a vulnerable child born into poverty, then the best celebration should invert the social order: master and servant, clergy and laity, man and woman. The Feast of Fools–held on January 1st–was the most notable celebration of cosmic inversion. Developed in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the tradition of the feasts continued until the 16th century. (1)
The festival is popularly misunderstood as a celebration of sacrilege, a result of its apparent burlesque of religion. Yet, the festival’s role reversals were prescribed by clergy, and the "fools" represented those chosen by God for their lowly status. From surviving 13th century manuscripts–notably, the Play of Daniel from Beauvais Cathedral and the Office of Joseph from Laon Cathedral–it is clear that some Catholic Churches in France sanctioned cross-dressing for liturgical purposes. (2) In fact, the Feast of Fools is remarkable for being sanctified rather than sacrilegious.
Many anthropologists of religion have argued that “sacred play,” or “ludic ritual,” is central to how religious behaviors function. (3) Although play may seem counterintuitive to religion, absurdity and holiness often go together, especially considering the role reversals and revelry of the Feast of Fools.
Literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin made a similar argument about the “carnivalesque.” (4) When absurdity is celebrated in religion–when a society’s usual rules are suspended–observant revelers can stretch the boundaries of their identities or reverse their social roles. Men become women; laity become clergy; God becomes a helpless infant; death becomes life. It is on the strength of the absurd that religions delve into hope and new ways of becoming. (5) “Sacred play” is reality altering work, a cornerstone of religious enlightenment and religious embodiment.
In 1969, theologian Harvey Cox proposed that an imitation of the medieval Feast of Fools could rejuvenate modern Christian spirituality, lamenting that the tradition has forgotten sacred play. (6)
As found in the Medieval Feast of Fools, the joy of inversion and freedom of death were, at one point, celebrated in Christian tradition through cross-dressing. Drag exists in Christian tradition as an artform that is capable of embodying the Divine. Sharing in Christ’s martyrdom is only part of Christian embodiment, and redemption and resurrection are essential to any imitation of Christ. Through embodying Christ, religious drag can become a project of resurrection.
(Taken from my Master's Thesis in Art History, "Crucifixion Can Happen To Anyone: Embodying Christ Through The Queer Artist")
1: “Feast of Fools.” n.d. Encyclopædia Britannica.
2: Harris, Max. 2011. Sacred Folly: A New History of the Feast of Fools. Cornell University Press. 113-127.
3: Turner, Victor. “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology.” Revista Mediações, vol. 17, no. 2 (2012): 214–57.
4: “Carnivalesque.” n.d. Oxford Reference. Accessed 12 July 2023.
5: Kierkegaard, Søren. “Fear and Trembling.” From Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard. University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1912.
6: Cox, Harvey. 1969. The Feast of Fools; a Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy. Harvard University Press
