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Carnival - the established festival before Lent, designed to rid all people of their impious tendencies before the fasting period began; involved reversal of roles and the mockery of respected institutions
-More popular in Northern Europe (perhaps because of climate)

-The word literally means "the taking away of flesh", indicating, among other things, the freeing of carnal impulses

-Involved music, dance, and occasionally public humiliation
-Possessed own code of conduct (though it was often indefinite) and confusing methods of conveying ideas through symbolism, etc.

-"The Carnival?appears rather typical of the ways in which people represented their hopes and desires through festive performances."
- "It produced the richest symbolic imagery; had the greatest influence on European culture?and celebrated the materiality of everyday life."
- "many otherwise pious individuals thought the Carnival helped make obedient subjects."
- "One common thesis see Carnival as acting as a 'safety valve' for the tensions that build up in any hierarchic, highly structured society?"
- "the tense knot of social animosities at the core of Carnival culture."
- "the theme of the world turned upside down?the idea of a world in which the normal rules of social order and the pieties of Christian life were disputed and mocked."

Charivari
- "Practiced in various forms all across Europe?charivari was a ritual of popular judgment typically employed in cases involving some apparent violation of the communities standards for proper sexual or maritial behavior."
- "Charivari provided ambivalent but powerful ritual forms not only for controlling marriage behavior but for ridiculing non-conformists of various kinds because it was basically a rite of intolerance employed in communities that were deeply threatened by any manifestation of difference." HOW DOES IT HELP US UNDERSTAND THE VIOLENCE OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS?
It shows how social tensions easily produced violence, even in supposedly festive environments. It is not hard to imagine these tensions in a non-festive environment, a situation that would undoubtedly be more extreme.