Sunday, August 29, 2010

Mask History Part 3

Mask History part 3

So as we head towards into the first centure CE (Common Era), the Romans would slowly work their way into the Celtic territories. As they came into the region, they discovered the Celtic celebrations. Instead of outright changing the celebrations, which closely mirrored their own, they integrated their own. The celebrations were essentially more celebrations to the gods and goddesses, but their own were substituted for the "pagan" deities they felt the Celts celebrated, and the masks continued to be worn.
As we approach the turning into the Common Era, Christianity would be rising throughout Europe, and after the fall of Rome, this would turn into what is referred to as the "Dark Ages"; being called such because there isn't a lot of information of what happened, as anything seen as artistic or celebratory or "worldly" was frowned upon, and the masks were part of that. The focus came onto biblical teachings and the church, anything else was deemed not useful or desired.
So what happened? This continued until the around the 5th century. It was the church who actually was responsible for the return of masks to the public, among many other things. The crux of the situation is that much devotion was occuring in churches. Any plays were based on biblical history and meant as a teaching tool and nothing more. Yet the belief seemed to crop up that they were losing a chance at adding parishoners. So the church set up a stage outside the church to tell the stories to the masses that they had kept in the church itself. Because there was no concern about being on hallowed ground, more creativity was encouraged. In the 12th century, there is record of priests setting up a play called "The Mystery Of Adam", a telling of part of Genesis. There were trap doors and sound effects, and at one point a couple of characters playing demons, complete in demon masks, whisked Adam off and on the stage before dropping through a trap door. The plays would get more elaborate, and the masks would respond in kind.
So we know about Europe, what about elsewhere in the world? Where else can we see the masks? In the next part I will be discussing how Asian theatre, particularly Japanese theatre, was flourishing, and the influences of that can be seen even today in North America.

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