I’d never heard of a charivari before. Alternately known as a shivaree or skimmington, a charivari was an old-world custom of public shaming. Not as extreme as being placed in stocks or tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, it was a generally non-violent way for townsfolk to let an errant individual know the community was displeased.
The subject of their ire may or may not have been paraded around the village square or burned in effigy, but the centerpiece of the performance was noise and lots of it. It generally involved banging pots and pots and loudly singing bawdy songs (Rough Music) about the ne-er do well.
It was a tradition that jumped across the pond to here, though it evolved over time. By the late early 20th century its use as an instrument of shame had mostly waned. The charivari had morphed into more of a noisy celebratory practice, often to haze newlyweds to delay the festivities of their wedding night…