With the approach of winter and the holiday season, Christmas music begins to fill the air at stores and on the radio; strains of songs about caroling and wassailing can be heard. Wassailing is actually an ancient custom derived from the spicy punch from which it gets its name. Another ancient custom associated with Christmas is mumming: a seasonal folk play that is performed door-to-door. And while not associated with Christmas, another door-to-door custom is the charivari.
The charivari is a loud, late-night surprise house visit, usually made on a newly-wed couple by members of their community, accompanied by a quête (a request for a treat or money in exchange for the noisy performance) and/or pranks. Up to the first decades of the twentieth century, charivaris were for the most part enacted to express disapproval of the relationship that was their focus, such as those between individuals of different ages, races, or religions. While later charivaris maintained the same rituals, their meaning changed to herald a welcoming of the marriage.
Here’s an excerpt from the Introduction to Pauline Greenhill’s Make the Night Hideous: Four English-Canadian Charivaris, 1881-1940, entitled Why Charivari?
