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I think those goggles might be intended for German knife dueling. I saw a photograph, remarkably similar to what's here in By the Sword by Richard Cohen. Supposedly duelists wear the masks to protect their eyes while they slash their faces to bloody ribbons.
The goggles are amusing. They're a pretty standard set of goggles (possibly welders' or motorcyclists' goggles), with the caps from a dual-reservoir inkwell set as "blinders."
What kind of "ceremony" requires those goggles?
Some secret societies such as the Oddfellows or Masons use hoodwinks/blindfolds/blinders like this in initiation ceremonies.
The initiate is brought in blinded and as part of becoming a memeber is brought into the light of the society/had his vision cleared/shown the truth/pick your own analogy.
My dad brought a similar mask home from the Odd Fellows. It was tossed out and I later saw one sell for $50 on ebay! That's besides the skeletons and other weird stuff the Odd Fellows collected. The masks and other relics could once be bought in a catalog. Interesting is the variation on masks. My dad tossed a mask looking like this one, http://farm1.static.flickr.com/97/238444938_9e798fefc4.jpg?v=0, google image searches yield other designs.
@eviladrian
Masonic initiation?
#1 is referring to Academic Fencing, but to my knowledge that sport uses goggles that are more like tubes. You do want to see what you're striking at, after all.
These look more like Sting props.
I used to work in an office where we had some archeologists on staff. Their big project was a construction site for a new high school (L.A. Central High School #9) where they had discovered a 19th-century cemetery under the site. The site was bought by the school district to use about 100 years ago, and they had re-interred most of the graves at the time, but they had missed a sizable chunk of the Oddfellows sections of the cemetery.
So they kept a bunch of human remains and pieces from graves in the office to do cataloguing and such... lots of weird Oddfellow symbols on coffins, jewelry, hardware, etc.
The "ceremonial goggles/blinders" reminds me of the Freemasonic word play Tubal-Cain -- Two Balls and a Cane.
http://www.deanandassociates.net/DSC_0185.JPG
you boing's should check out the history of the Oddfellows.they did not name themself's but were rather called "odd fellows" because they helped out people in the 1800's when "me first" was the watch word out west.
Adam Savage from the MythBusters has a pair of goggles very similar to those, which he got from a pawn shop. He also identified them as "Masonic Initiation Glasses".
Once my wife and I went to an Elks lodge to meet my parents who were also there for a lunch. We started to walk into the front door when a "gentleman" says, "The lady can't come in this way". My wife decided that "BPOE" stands for Big Penis Of Elk, and they didn't want her to see it.
I wonder what an old dried elk penis would go for on eBay?
Ah the Odd Fellows. More or less gone these days, but they were one of the more interesting fraternal groups. As part of the same initiation ceremonies that presumably included those goggles, initiates were brought face to face with a human skeleton - usually fake, but not always.
There are all kinds of buildings that used to be Odd Fellows lodges in which new owners or workmen are unearthing skeletons in attics and basements and crawl spaces, calling the police and causing a significant freakout until somebody figures out what's going on.
LA Times article from 2001 (Google cache because the Times archive claims it's down for maintenance at the moment.)
It isn't a mask. It is a dismembered head of Goliath, used in one of the Odd Fellow ceremonies (which all use Biblical imagery). The initiate and brothers play the role of David and his cohort.
The goggles are hoodwinks, as has been mentioned above. Initiates are blindfolded during portions of initiation ceremonies and the covers are flipped open so they can see a scene displayed before them (and then flipped down to blind the person again while they are led around in a disoriented manner before seeing the next scene).
A Former Oddfellow
Oh, and the skeleton thing. A skeleton, as a symbol of the death that waits for us all in this mortal existence, is used in an early Odd Fellows ceremony. It used to be customary in the 19th century for particularly active Odd Fellows to leave their skeletons to the order on their death, in order for them to be used in the rituals. My old lodge had several though the origin of at least one was no longer remembered and it had a variety of bone related nicknames (Ol' Seemore Bones, etc.).
The Odd Fellows are still strong in California and many parts of the world, though our membership is declining, mostly because the silverbacks dropped the ball and stopped recruiting a generation or two ago. They are mostly in their 80s. The various fraternal orders are insurance companies from the day. We still have some benefits, but need new blood to reinvigorate programs. I saw a northern California lodge vote a $700 check to a member who lost his job and had to pay rent a few years back. This was in-house relief by a lodge that has it going on. They got no reimbursement from the state. They do their own fundraising and can spend the money any way they want within reason. www.ioof.org - check us out, but don't be scared off by the formality of the site. Just look up the locals wherever you are and make contact. We own buildings for public events and the paperwork is made easy. Artist and musician members can use the buildings for events and stuff. Truth is, if you are willing to do your share of the work the old timers will be so happy to have you that you will be able to get the votes to do just about anything you might want. There are guidlines, the most important being that the group's events are apolitical. There are apolitical approaches to most issues so that isn't much of a limitation. It is important in a group with as much diversity as the Odd Fellows. I'm a pothead, but I happen to really personally like the retired federal officers (including DEA) I've gotten to know through the group. Some years ago we had a natural health and healing fair to correspond with a marijuana relegalization rally that was also put on by some of our members - but not as an Odd Fellows event. Check us out.
I always wanted to join one! I love joining things. But I'm a girl.
A lot of my family was in eastern star though.
I don't know much about it.
You said: "It isn't a mask. It is a dismembered head of Goliath." As a Famous Australian has said before: Please Explain.
I've read some of the comments above - truly fascinating!