This isn't what you might think.....The last paragraph and line are the best....Enjoy it!
The Christmas Bishop
In parts of Western Europe one finds reports of the election of boy bishops, often on December 28th, which marked the feasts of Holy Innocents massacred by King Herod.
In England the practice can be found dating back to the twelfth century, where boys were elected as bishops in churches or schools. The boy might be dressed up in vestments and would celebrate a mock mass that would include preaching a sermon. Afterwards he would go out in a procession, where he would receive gifts of money and food. Even the English kings would participate in the fun – Edward I had one boy bishop say vespers before him in 1299 and his son Edward II awarded another boy bishop ten shillings in 1316.
In mainland Europe the practice was a little different. One account from Denmark describes how someone became the bishop:
Christmas Bishop is the name of a young man who is consecrated bishop in a Christmas game which goes as follows: they place one from their own guild, that is to say the guild of unmarried people, on a chair, blacken his face and put a stick in his mouth with a piece of candle on either end. Then the young men and women run around him in a circle and sign: ‘We consecrate a Christmas Bishop pro nobis”, and when this had been done three times he had been consecrated Christmas Bishop.
Of course, the Christmas Bishop had duties to perform: he “marries as many couples from the guild as he wants while making strange faces and speaking in a feigned voice, and then the married couples must offer something. Those offering something which is not good enough are hit by a bag filled with ashes that the Bishop has kept under his cape.”
The marriages lasted one night – we are left to guess how the happy couples spent their Christmas honeymoon.
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