Modern Usage
The term bacchanalia has since been extended to refer to any drunken revelry. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses the words: "the law was certainly not behind any other learned profession in its Bacchanalian propensities." Also in A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens writes: "No vivacious Bacchanalian flame leaped out of the pressed grape of Monsieur Defarge: but, a smouldering fire that burnt in the dark, lay hidden in the dregs."
- Tableau 4 of Alexander Glazunov's ballet The Seasons is entitled "Bacchanale".
- In John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden, the atmosphere of Jenny's whorehouse is described as "tavern bacchanalianism".
- In Philip Roth's novella, "Goodbye Columbus", Roth uses "bacchanalian paraphernalia" to describe Mr. Patimkin's stocked bar.
- In Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History, four of the central characters hold a bacchanal, which leads to two murders.
- In 1938, John Cage invented the prepared piano for a Syvilla Fort dance work titled Bacchanale.
- The sound track for the 1971 movie "Summer of '42" by Michel Legrand includes a lively piece called "The Bacchanal."
- In the second season of the HBO show True Blood the town falls under the spell of a Maenad, who holds regular Bacchanalia with the possessed townspeople.
- The 2011 revival of The Wizard of Oz contains a musical number entitled "Bacchanalia", which is a dance number in act two at The Witch's Castle.
- In the classic 1983 comedy movie “A Christmas Story”, co-writer and film narrator Jean Shepherd described the hectic holiday season as a “. . . yearly bacchanalia of peace on earth and goodwill to men. “
- Kerwin Du Bois, a Trinidadian soca artist, released his song "Bacchanalist" in 2012, the song was a commercial success in Trinidad and Tobago and referred to the "bacchanalia" of Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival Season.
- At Harvard College, Lowell House's annual spring formal is named Bacchanalia. One senior member of the house is chosen as Bacchus and dresses in a toga and recites a poem during the festivities.
- In the book "Lights Out in Wonderland" by DBC Pierre, the protagonist leaves London in pursuit of a "Bacchanal unrivalled since the fall of Rome". His exploits eventually culminate in unholy Bacchanal in complexes of Berlin's Tempelhof Airport.
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