The mediaeval Feast of Fools was to a large extent a seasonal orgy licensed by the Church.  It may be traced directly back through the barbatories of the lower empire to the Roman saturnalia, and at Sens, the ancient ecclesiastical metropolis of France, it was held at about the same time as the saturnalia, on the Feast of the Circumcision, i.e., New Year’s Day.  It was not, however, always held at this time; thus at Evreux it took place on the 1st of May.[136]

The Easter bonfires of northern-central Europe, the Midsummer (St. John’s Eve) fires of southern-central Europe, still bear witness to the ancient festivals.[137] There is certainly a connection between these bonfires and erotic festivals; it is noteworthy that they occur chiefly at the period of spring and early summer, which, on other grounds, is widely regarded as the time for the increase of the sexual instinct, while the less frequent period for the bonfires is that of the minor sexual climax.  Mannhardt was perhaps the first to show how intimately these spring and early summer festivals—­held with bonfires and dances and the music of violin—­have been associated with love-making and the choice of a mate.[138] In spring, the first Monday in Lent (Quadrigesima) and Easter Eve were frequent days for such bonfires.  In May, among the Franks of the Main, the unmarried women, naked and adorned with flowers, danced on the Blocksberg before the men, as described by Herbels in the tenth century.[139] In the central highlands of Scotland the Beltane fires were kindled on the 1st of May.  Bonfires sometimes took place on Halloween (October 31st) and Christmas.  But the great season all over Europe for these bonfires, then often held with erotic ceremonial, is the summer solstice, the 23d of June, the eve of Midsummer, or St. John’s Day.[140]

The Bohemians and other Slavonic races formerly had meetings with sexual license.  This was so up to the beginning of the sixteenth century on the banks of rivers near Novgorod.  The meetings took place, as a rule, the day before the Festival of John the Baptist, which, in pagan times, was that of a divinity known by the name of Jarilo (equivalent to Priapus).  Half a century later, a new ecclesiastical code sought to abolish every vestige of the early festivals held on Christmas Day, on the Day of the Baptism, of Our Lord, and on John the Baptist’s Day.  A general feature of all these festivals (says Kowalewsky) was the prevalence of the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes.  Among the Ehstonians, at the end of the eighteenth century, thousands of persons would gather around an old ruined church (in the Fellinschen) on the Eve of St. John, light a bonfire, and throw sacrificial gifts into it.  Sterile women danced naked among the ruins; much eating and drinking went on, while the young men and maidens disappeared into the woods to do what they would.  Festivals of this character still take place at the end of June in some districts.