Charivari

European and North American folk custom designed to shame a community member
the mock serenading custom

Charivari (,/ʃ//ɪ//v//ə/'/r//iː//, /'/ʃ//ɪ//v//ə//r//iː/, /ukalso/,/ʃ//ɑːr//ɪ/'/v//ɑːr//i/, /usalso//ʃ//ə/,/r//ɪ//v//ə/'/r//iː/, alternatively spelled shivaree or chivaree and also called a skimmington) was a European and North American folk custom designed to shame a member of the community, in which a mock parade was staged through the settlement accompanied by a discordant mock serenade. Since the crowd aimed to make as much noise as possible by beating on pots and pans or anything that came to hand, these parades were often referred to as rough music. Parades were of three types. In the first and generally most violent form, an alleged wrongdoer (or wrongdoers) might be dragged from his or her home or place of work and paraded by force through a community. In the process, the victim was subject to the derision of the crowd and might be pelted and was frequently dunked at the end of the proceedings. A safer form involved a neighbour of the wrongdoer impersonating the victim while being carried through the streets. The impersonator was obviously not him or herself punished and often cried out or sang ribald verses mocking the wrongdoer. In the common form, an effigy was employed instead, abused and often burnt at the end of the proceedings. Communities used "rough music" to express their disapproval of different types of violation of community norms. For example, they might target marriages of which they disapproved such as a union between an older widower and much younger woman, or the premature remarriage by a widow or widower. Villages also used charivari in cases of adulterous relationships, against wife beaters or unmarried mothers. It was also used as a form of shaming upon husbands who were beaten by their wives and had not stood up for themselves. In some cases, the community disapproved of any remarriage by older widows or widowers. Charivari is the original French word, and in Canada it is used by both Anglophones and Francophones. Chivaree became the common variant in Ontario, Canada. In the United States, the term shivaree is more common. As species of popular justice rites, Charivaric events were carefully planned and they were often staged at times of traditional festivity thereby blending delivering justice and celebration.

The origin of the word charivari is likely from the Vulgar Latin caribaria, plural of caribarium, already referring to the custom of rattling kitchenware with an iron rod, itself probably from the Greek καρηβαρία (karēbaría), literally "heaviness in the head" but also used to mean "headache", from κάρα "head" and βαρύς "heavy". In any case, the tradition has been practised for at least 700 years. An engraving in the early 14th century French manuscript, Roman de Fauvel, shows a charivari underway.

During the Western Rising of 1628–1631, which was a rebellion in south west England against the enclosure of royal forest lands, the name "Lady Skimmington" was adopted by the leader of the protest movement. According to some sources the name was used by a number of men involved with the Western Rising, who dressed in women's clothes not only as a method of disguise, but also in order to symbolise their protest against a breach of the established order.

Many folk customs around the world have involved making loud noises to scare away evil spirits. Tuneless, cacophonous "rough music", played on horns, bugles, whistles, tin trays and frying pans, was a feature of the custom known as Teddy Rowe's Band. This had taken place annually, possibly for several centuries, in the early hours of the morning, to herald the start of Pack Monday Fair at Sherborne, Dorset, until it was banned by the police in 1964 because of hooliganism the previous year. The fair is still held, on the first Monday after Old Michaelmas Day (10 October) – St Michael's Day in the Old Style calendar. The Tin Can Band at Broughton, Northamptonshire, a seasonal custom, takes place at midnight on the third Sunday in December. The participants march around the village for about an hour, rattling pans, dustbin lids, kettles and anything else that will make a noise. The council once attempted to stop the tin canning; participants were summoned and fined, but a dance was organised to raise money to pay the fines and the custom continues.

Equivalents include the [[:de:haberfeldtreiben and [[:de:katzenmusik, , Spanish cacerolada, (also cacerolazo or cacerolada) and It did not want the community taking on the judgment and punishment of parishioners. But the custom continued in rural areas. The charivari as celebration was a custom initially practised by the upper classes, but as time went on, the lower classes also participated and often looked forward to the next opportunity to join in. The two main purposes of the charivari in Europe were to facilitate change in the current social structure and to act as a form of censure within the community. The goal was to enforce social standards and to rid the community of socially unacceptable relationships that threatened the stability of the whole. In Europe various types of charivari took place that differed from similar practices in other parts of the world. For example, the community might conduct a stag hunt against adulterers by creating a mock chase of human "stags" by human "hounds". The hounds would pursue the stags (that is, those who were committing the adulterous relationship) and dispense animal blood on their doorsteps. European charivaris were highly provocative, leading to overt public humiliation. The people used them to acknowledge and correct misbehaviour. In other parts of the world, similar public rituals around nuptials were practised mostly for celebration. Humiliation was the most common consequence of the European charivari. The acts which victims endured were forms of social ostracism often so embarrassing that they would leave the community for places where they were not known. Sometimes the charivari resulted in murder or suicide. Examples from the south of France include five cases of a charivari victim's firing on his accusers: these incidents resulted in two people being blinded and three killed. Some victims committed suicide, unable to recover from the public humiliation and social exclusion. Norman Lewis recorded the survival of the custom in 1950s Ibiza "in spite of the energetic disapproval of the Guardia Civil". It was called cencerrada, consisted of raucous nocturnal music, and was aimed at widows or widowers who remarried prematurely. It is possible that the blowing of car horns after weddings in France (and indeed in many European countries) today is a holdover from the charivari of the past.

Charivari has been practiced in much of the United States, but it was most frequent on the frontier, where communities were small and more formal enforcement was lacking. It was documented into the early 20th century, but was thought to have mostly died out by mid century. In Canada, charivaris have occurred in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces, but not always as an expression of disapproval. The early French colonists took the custom of charivari (or shivaree in the United States) to their settlements in Quebec. Some historians believe the custom spread to English speaking areas of Lower Canada and eventually into the American South, but it was independently common in English society, so was likely to be part of Anglo American customs. Charivari is well documented in the Hudson Valley from the earliest days of English settlers through the early 1900s. The earliest documented examples of Canadian charivari were in Quebec in the mid 17th century. One of the most notable was on June 28, 1683. After the widow of François Vézier dit Laverdure remarried only three weeks after her husband’s death, people of Quebec City conducted a loud and strident charivari against the newlyweds at their home. As practised in North America, the charivari tended to be less extreme and punitive than the traditional European custom. Each was unique and heavily influenced by the standing of the family involved, as well as who was participating. While embellished with some European traditions, in a North American charivari participants might throw the culprits into horse tanks or force them to buy candy bars for the crowd. This account from an American charivari in Kansas exemplifies the North American attitude. In contrast to punitive charivari in small villages in Europe, meant to ostracize and isolate the evildoers, North American charivaris were used as "unifying rituals", in which those in the wrong were brought back into the community after what might amount to a minor hazing. In some communities the ritual served as a gentle spoof of the newlyweds, intended to disrupt for a while any sexual activities that might be under way. In parts of the midwest US, such as Kansas, in the mid 1960 1970s, shivaree customs continued as good natured wedding humour along the lines of the musical Oklahoma!. Rituals included wheeling the bride about in a wheelbarrow or tying cowbells under a wedding bed. This ritual may be the base of the fastening of tin cans to the newlyweds car. In Tampa, Florida in September 1885, a large chivaree was held on the occasion of local official James T. Magbee's wedding. According to historian Kyle S. Vanlandingham, the party was "the wildest and noisiest of all the chivaree parties in Tampa's history," attended by "several hundred" men and lasting "until near daylight". The music produced during the chivaree was reportedly "hideous and unearthly beyond description". Charivari is believed to have inspired the development of the Acadian tradition of Tintamarre.

Perhaps the most common usage of the word today is in relation to circus performances, where a 'charivari' is a type of show opening that sees a raucous tumble of clowns and other performers into the playing space. This is the most common form of entrance used in today's classical circus, whereas the two and three ring circuses of the last century usually preferred a parade, or a 'spec'. Charivari was sometimes called "riding the 'stang", when the target was a man who had been subject to scolding, beating, or other abuse from his wife. The man was made to "ride the 'stang", which meant that he was placed backwards on a horse, mule or ladder and paraded through town to be mocked, while people banged pots and pans. The charivari was used to belittle those who could not or would not consummate their marriage. In the mid 16th century, historic records attest to a charivari against Martin Guerre in the small village of Artigat in the French Pyrenees for that reason. After he married at the age of 14, his wife did not get pregnant for eight years, so villagers ridiculed him. Later in his life, another man took over Guerre's identity and life. The trial against the impostor was what captured the events for history. In the 20th century, the events formed the basis of a French film, Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982) and the history, The Return of Martin Guerre, by the American history professor Natalie Zemon Davis. With the charivari widely practised among rural villagers across Europe, the term and practice were part of common culture. Over time, the word was applied to other items. In Bavaria, charivari was adopted as the name for the silver ornaments worn with Lederhosen; the items consist of small trophies from game, like teeth from wild boar, or deer, jaws and fangs from foxes and various marters, feathers and claws from jaybirds and birds of prey. A Bavarian Charivari resembles the so called "chatelaine", a women's ornament consisting of a silver chain with numerous pendants like a mini silver box of needles, a small pair of scissors, a tiny bottle of perfume, etc

In the Philippines, the term "Charivari" is used by the Revised Penal Code for a type of criminalised public disorder. Defined in Article 155 as a medley of discordant voices, it is classed under alarm and scandal and is punishable by a fine.

Charivari would later be taken up by composers of the French Baroque tradition as a 'rustic' or 'pastoral' character piece. Notable examples are those of the renowned viola da gamba virtuoso Marin Marais in his five collections of pieces for the basse de viole and continuo. Some are quite advanced and difficult and subsequently evoke the title's origins. The British period instrument/early music ensemble, Charivari Agréable (founded in 1993), states that their name translates as, pleasant tumult' (from Saint Lambert’s 1707 treatise on accompaniment)".

Le Charivari was the name given to a French satirical magazine first published in 1832. Its British counterpart, established in 1841, was entitled Punch, or The London Charivari. In the film The Purchase Price, members of a North Dakota farming community celebrate the marriage of Barbara Stanwyck's and George Brent's characters by holding a noisy, drunken shivaree a couple days after their nuptials. In the television show The Waltons, the episode titled "The Shivaree" focused around a wedding between a city boy and a country girl. The groom almost calls off the marriage after being humiliated by a shivaree thrown by his wife's family and friends. In the television show The Rifleman, in episode titled "Shivaree", two travelers are forced to get married when it is discovered that they are actually a young unmarried couple in disguise. The Midsomer Murders television episode "Four Funerals and a Wedding" prominently features a Skimmington ride. In the fantasy novel series Discworld, Terry Pratchett refers to the 'dissonant piping and war drums of vengeance' sounds of rough music in a scene where a rural town finds out that a local man beat his daughter, causing her miscarriage, and a drunken mob come to kill him for the crime. In the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, the episode titled "Return Engagement, Part 1" references a shivaree after an ex prostitute marries the telegraph operator. In the musical Oklahoma!, Laurey and Curly are given a shivaree on their wedding night by a group of rowdy cowboys near the end of Act II. In the British drama series Jamestown, Season 2, Episode 8, the Widow Castell is made to walk a Skimmington in order to shame her for not remarrying soon enough. The men in power want her under the control of a husband to stymie her meddling in colony politics. In the 1950 film Never A Dull Moment, newlyweds Chris and Kay are given a shivaree by local ranchers on Kay’s first night at her husband’s ranch. In the American animated sitcom Archer, Season 5, Episode 12, titled "Filibuster", Cyril proposes that the servants conduct a shivaree while he and Julia Calderon consummate their marriage. She declines. In the 1966 film El Dorado, Cole Thorton (John Wayne) tells Mississippi (James Caan) that they were unable to re enter the saloon they just left because the "shivaree" (i. e., the fight they had with other bar patrons) "wore out our welcome". In the television show Death Valley Days, Season 1, Episode 8, "The Chivaree", the couple getting married discuss the expected "chivareeing" to follow their upcoming wedding. The groom opposes, after having already been chided in the town previously, but the scorned ex lover of the bride insists. The bride and groom sit quietly in the window and endure the ruckus for two days before inviting the crowd in for food and drink.