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An ancient legend serves as the basis for this Festival: an Oxford University student, while strolling in the forest reading the works of Aristotle, was charged by a wild and raging boar. The student, quick thinking, thrust his volume of Aristotle into the throat of the boar, putting an end to this deadly threat.
After the telling of this tale, the head of the boar was borne into a feast at Oxford. The celebration for the student's life came to represent the overcoming of brute force with reason. When the Church adapted the Festival, it gained a new, profoundly Christian significance: the boar's head, symbolic representation of evil, is overcome by good through the teachings of Christ (symbolized by light). Thus, Christ becomes the snare for evil.
 Click here to view costumes from the Boar's Head Festival.
Click here to hear selected music from the Boar's Head Festival.
Click here to view documents from the Boar's Head Festival.
Click here to view photos from the Boar's Head Festival.
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