The article and the book extract explain the culture of the so called ‘’charivari’’. What exactly was this and what purpose did it serve?
The charivari originated in France, where it was mainly ‘’used for […] political purposes’’ ¹. It was ‘’directed against all kinds of unpopular figures such as corrupt officials, submissive husbands or promiscuous women’’ ² and was brought to Canada by the settlers, where it was used frequently in Lower Canada. Here, it served (in the beginning) a different purpose than in France: it was an act of rebellion against mismatched (newlywed) couples. They suffered from ‘’both humiliation and monetary exaction’’ ³, ‘’charivari penalized people by making a public spectacle of their faults’’ ⁴. The attacked couple did get a chance to buy their freedom – the participants of the charivari would harass them over and over again until the fee was paid.
However, the charivari could be an act of violence: ‘’[…] Many fatal accidents arise out of an imprudent refusal to satisfy the demands of the assailants’’ ⁵.
It did later take a political role in Lower Canada, where it was used to force ‘’office-holders to resign’’ ⁶ – the reason behind this was that the act of the charivari offered anonymity to the participants during that unstable time, it provided some form of security.
¹ Allan Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution: Charivaris and the Lower Canadian Rebellion of 1837,’’ Social History 15:1 (1990): 25
² Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 27
³ Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 30
⁴ Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 30
⁵ Susanna Moodie, Roughing it in the bush, or, life in Canada, ed. Carl Ballstadt (Ottawa: 1988), 222
⁶ Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 37