This week in class we covered the festival of Carnival the importance social role it plays for peasants. Carnival is the holiday leading up to Lent that peasants are allowed to indulge in their vices and enact a ritualistic justice against the elite culture by mocking them. They would fake mass services lampooning and ridiculing the church and its power. What is significant about this holiday was that it was a social safety valve that allowed the masses to voice frustrations at the elite class without engaging in a full revolt. It gave a sense of justice that allowed them to endure their brutal existence the rest of the year.
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