ASINI, FESTA degli (Feast of the Ass). - A medieval, paraliturgical religious celebration intended to commemorate the part played by the ass in various episodes of Holy Scripture (the ass of the flight into Egypt, of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the ass of Balaam, and above all the ass of the manger at Bethlehem, known only from the apocryphal gospels). It flourished especially in France in the 12th-15th centuries, and the dramatic action took various forms depending on the place and the events commemorated.
Thus at Rouen the feast of the ass was celebrated at Christmas, after the singing of the hour of Terce. From the cloister of the cathedral a procession set out, composed of prophets and other figures of the Old Testament and led by two singing clerics. Having entered the church, they halted in the middle of the nave, where a kind of furnace had been lit (linteo et stuppis constituta), flanked by six Jews on one side and six gentiles on the other. The two clerics then called forward the various figures one by one, and each, stepping forward, recited his prophecy. When it is Balaam's turn, he comes forward seated on an ass, which stops stubbornly; the prophet beats it, spurs it in vain; and it groans and speaks to him: "Why do you strike me?". The one who actually speaks is someone hidden beneath the beast's trappings (quidam sub asina dica). When the roll-call was finished, the figures and the ministers sang a kind of hymn from the pulpit, and then the Christmas Mass was intoned.
At Beauvais, by contrast, the feast was celebrated on 14 January (the intention being to commemorate Mary's flight into Egypt), but it had a more farcical tone. The most beautiful girl was chosen, and, seated on a richly caparisoned ass and carrying a child in her arms, she made her journey in great pomp from the cathedral to the parish church of St. Stephen, and attended the whole solemn Mass, standing at the right side of the altar. When the Mass was over, the priest, instead of singing the Ite, missa est, imitated three times the braying of the ass (ter hinhanabit), and the people, in place of the Deo gratias, answered hin-han! hin-han! hin-han! Indeed, during the Mass itself, after the epistle, there was sung the so-called prose of the ass, composed in Leonine verses, in which, to each stanza setting forth the qualities and services rendered by the beast, a refrain in the vernacular was added: "Hez, sir asne, hez - belle bouche rechignez - on aura du foin assez - et de l'avoine a planté".
The representation, at first kept within discreet limits, did not take long to evolve toward an ever more buffoonish tone. Thus at Sens, in 1247, the clerics took part in the feast adorned with flowers and even in disguise. In the 14th century, in what was probably a contamination with "the feast of fools", the ass, having entered the church in triumph, was welcomed by the canons carrying bottles and glasses in their hands, and it was the custom to incense it with puddings and sausages ("hoc die incensabitur cum budino et saucita").
As the excesses grew with the passing of the years, the feast of the ass could no longer be either permitted or tolerated; and the 15th century marked its definitive cessation almost everywhere.
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