Would itve been appropriate for masked balls tove been held for birthday celebrations in Elizabethan times?
Yes, the Elizabethans would have considered a masquerade a totally appropriate birthday celebration. Costumed balls began in 15th-century Italy and were first associated with the Venetian Carnival. From Italy, they spread to the rest of Europe. Masques, an elaborate form of entertaining featuring music, dancing, singing, dancing and above all staging with scenery and elaborate costumes, developed from these celebrations. Edgar Allen Poe wrote about a macabre masked ball in the short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, and a masked ball figured prominently in the plot of Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf”. Finally, one of the major scenes in the musical “The Phantom of the Opera” features a masked ball.
