The term ‘paratheatre’ was coined by Jerzy Grotowski, a twentieth-century Polish theatre director and theatrical theoretician. One of the phases of his experimentation with performances, during which he was searching for different ways to bridge the gap between the actors and the spectators by involving the latter into interactive performances through a variety of communal rites, was referred to as ‘paratheatrical’. In this essay the word ‘paratheatrical’ is used to denote shared ceremonial activities, such as dancing, music-making and processions, that involved elements of dressing up, and might have been acted out by both professionals and laymen.