Over time, the silly season in Catholic liturgy that peaked in the 1970s—clown masses (with the priest vested as Bozo or somesuch), free-for-all prayers that ignored the prescribed rite, dreadful pop music, inept liturgical dance, a general lack of decorum—began to recede.
The Brits call it the silly season. In Germany the media call it the Sommerloch, literally the summer hole. What they are referring to is the fact that when politicians and businesspeople close up shop and go away for the major European summer holidays, the number of serious news stories tends to diminish—meaning desperate hacks need to find something else to fill the hole.