Risus Paschalis: European Background

Risus Paschalis

European Background

On Easter Sunday afternoon most people in the villages and towns of central Europe come back to church for the solemn services of Vespers and Benediction. At the sermon that preceded this afternoon service, a quaint custom was practiced in those regions during medieval times. The priests would regale their congregations with funny stories and poems, drawing moral conclusions from these jolly tales (Ostermarlein: Easter fables). The purpose of this unusual practice was to reward the faithful with something gay after the many sad and serious Lenten preachings, a purpose easily achieved as the churches rang with the loud and happy laughter of the audience (risus paschalis: Easter laughter). This tradition is found as early as the thirteenth century. From the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries the custom was widespread, and a number of collections of Easter fables appeared in print.[54] The reformers violently attacked the practice as an abuse, however, and it was gradually suppressed by the Church during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.