charivari for the right to make noise!

'charivari' to me was a cool word, like tatterdemalion... cool but no longer around.
nobody uses it.
but in Montreal they had a charivari as a form of protest last week - how cool is that?
not only the marchers, but those along the route came out to bang pots and pans in support.

The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt writes from Montreal:
Indeed, at the pot banging near the Jarry subway on Friday night the age range of the crowd was strikingly diverse. Sensibly dressed fortysomethings wearing hiking boots and kagools intermingled with long-haired students wearing only shorts. Men and women pushing young children in prams were flanked by hipsters on fixed-gear bikes.

The range of protesters was matched by the diversity of utensils they chose to create noise. Some had reached past the saucepan and wooden spoon, with the Guardian spying such unlikely pairings as a colander and a drumstick, a pan lid and a pair of chopsticks, and a barbecue lid and a pair of tongs all being put to alternative use.

As the protesters marched for more than four hours through various Montreal neighbourhoods, many people had taken to their balconies in support, bringing their own kitchenware and adding to the din.

kind of reminds me of the 60s when race riots spread across the USA and the one black guy in vermont exploded out to his curbside and set his paper-recycling bin on fire. (the good paper one, not glossy, that makes toxic fumes).