Feast of the Ass

The medieval Christian feast celebrating the Virgin Mary’s ride into Jerusalem on a donkey has not entirely disappeared, but was secretly combined with the Feast of the Fools and the Feast of Saint Vitus. Before every 14 January the supply of donkey heads at Shakespearean costumers around the world is much diminished, because the feast participants are entertained by a priest doing the Saint Vitus dance while wearing a donkey’s head and dressed in burlap bags with ribbons.