England So-called "rough music" practices in England were known by many regional or local designations. In the North the most commonly employed term was "
stang riding", a stang being a long pole carried on the shoulders of two men between which an object or a person could be mounted. In the South, the term
skimmington, or
skimmington ride, was most commonly employed, a skimmington being a type of large wooden ladle with which an unruly wife might beat her husband. Other terms include "
lewbelling", "
tin-panning", "
ran tanning", a "
nominey" or "
wooset". Where effigies of the "wrongdoers" were made they were frequently burned as the climax of the event (as the inscription on the Rampton photograph indicates Rough music practices were irregularly scattered throughout English communities in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth they declined but endured in a few places, such as
Rampton, Nottinghamshire (1909),
Middleton Cheney (1909) and
Blisworth (1920s and 1936), Northamptonshire. There were in fact some examples after the Second World War in Sussex, at
West Hoathly in 1947 and
Copthorne around 1951, and an attempt at traditional rough music practice was last documented by the folklorist Theo Brown in a Devonshire village around 1973. In Warwickshire, the custom was known as "loo-belling" or "lewbelling", and in northern England as "riding the stang". During a rough music performance, the victim could be displayed upon a pole or donkey (in person or as an effigy), their "crimes" becoming the subject of mime, theatrical performances or
recitatives, along with a litany of obscenities and insults. Thus, in contrast to the verses above referring to a shrewish wife there were also songs referring to the use of rough music as a protection for wives. Rough music song originating from
South Stoke, Oxfordshire: The participants were generally young men temporarily bestowed with the power of rule over the everyday affairs of the community. Rough music practices would often be repeated for three or up to seven nights in a row. As forms of
vigilantism that were likely to lead to
public disorder, ran-tanning and similar activities were banned under the Highways Act of 1882. The term is particularly associated with the
West Country region of England and, although the etymology is not certain, it has been suggested that it derived from the
ladle used in that region for cheesemaking, which was perceived as a weapon used by a woman to beat a weak or henpecked husband. The rationale for a skimmington varied, but one major theme was disapproval of a man for weakness in his relationship with his wife. A description of the custom in 1856 cites three main targets: a man who is worsted by his wife in a quarrel; a cuckolded man who accepts his wife's
adultery; and any married person who engages in licentious conduct. To "ride such a person skimmington" involved exposing them or their effigy to ridicule on a cart, or on the back of a horse or donkey. Some accounts describe the participants as carrying ladles and spoons with which to beat each other, at least in the case of skimmingtons prompted by marital discord. The noisy parade passed through the neighbourhood, and served as a punishment to the offender and a warning to others to abide by community norms; Roberts suggests that the homes of other potential victims were visited in a pointed manner during a skimmington. and incidents have been reported from the 1930s, the 1950s and perhaps even the 1970s. The antiquary and lexicographer
Francis Grose described a skimmington as: "Saucepans, frying-pans, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and cleavers, bulls horns, etc. beaten upon and sounded in ludicrous processions"
(A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1796).
Western Rising 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.
Similar customs 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.
Mainland Europe Equivalents include the and , , 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.
North America 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 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. ==Importance of noise==