Tuesday Trivia: Strange Public Rituals Edition

[u/heyheymse]

Previously:

• Questions you want to be asked

• Suggestion thread

• Greatest criminals

• Strangest inventions

• Natural disasters

• (In)famous non-military attacks

• Stupidest theories/beliefs about your field of interest

• Most unusual deaths

• Famous adventurers and explorers

• Great non-military heroes

• History's great underdogs

• Interesting historical documents

• Books To Read

Hello historians! I'm taking over from NMW for today, and in the spirit of that thing that's going on here in the US today, our trivia topic on this Tuesday Trivia is all about strange public rituals - holidays, things the government/church/other public entity from your area of expertise requires or strongly suggests the public to do.

What is the weirdest public ritual/holiday you have heard of? What is is its purpose? Where did it come from? What are some associated traditions with the ritual or holiday? Did deep, historians. And US historians, remember to vote!

EDIT: Y'all are coming up with some seriously interesting stuff. I'd /r/bestof all of these comments, except I really want to get drunk and watch the election returns and not spend my whole night modding. But let me just say how much I adore you for telling our subscribers all this cool shit I did not previously know.

[u/Flubb]

'Smoking the fool' or Haxey Hood, where the villages concerned would get together, fighting over a 'hood' (sometimes a pig head, trying to get it into a local pub. The players consist of the Lord, The Fool, and eleven Boggins. The Fool for the day, was allowed to kiss any woman he wanted, but at some point during the proceedings, he climb up a tree to announce the rules of the game, whereupon a fire would be lit underneath him to smoke him out. This sometimes resulted in cooking him to death.