How useful is the notion of Carnival in analysing Popular Culture from medieval to present day?
At roughly the same time in history, Epicurus (Greek philosopher) and Solomon (Israelite king credited with writing Ecclesiastes) were espousing a view that as man did not know why he was born and what happened after he died, he should “eat, drink and be merry”. This notion of reacting to powerlessness by celebrating is at the very core of Carnival and its influence on popular culture. Although it might be disingenuous to create an evolutionary link from 300BC Greece to the Middle Ages in England, there is no doubt that Epicureanism, or Hedonism as it later became known, was at the core of plebeian festivals in both eras. Perhaps, it is human nature, and perhaps that is why the essence of Carnival will always be relevant and prevalent whilst there is an oppressed or powerless community.
But what is carnival? To be able to track the influence of Carnival we must first understand it. In medieval, feudal Britain Carnival was an essential ritual for the powerless peasant majority, whose lives were pre-destined and whose future depended entirely on a successful harvest. Carnival provided a reaction to the precarious, poverty-stricken, humdrum existence of the masses, as Peter Burke puts it:
“It was opposed to the everyday, a time of waste precisely because the everyday was a time of careful saving.”
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