Mummers Parade

A group of "comic" mummers in the 2005 parade

The Mummers Parade is held each New Year's Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Local clubs (usually called "New Years Associations") compete in one of four categories (Comics, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades). They prepare elaborate costumes and moveable scenery, which take months to complete. This is done in clubhouses, many of which are located on or near 2nd Street (called "Two Street" by some local residents) in South Philadelphia, which also serve as social gathering places for members.

History

A few members of the Aqua String Band in the 2005 parade presenting their theme "Just Plain Dead"

A "fancy" mummer in the 2005 parade

Golden Sunrise Fancy Club members strut their stuff.

The Mummers Parade traces back to mid-17th century roots, blending elements from Swedish, Finnish, Irish, English, German and other European heritages, as well as African-American heritage. The parade is related to the Mummers Play tradition from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Revivals of this tradition are still celebrated anually in South Gloucestershire, England on Boxing Day and in parts of Ireland on St. Stephen's Day.

Swedes, Philadelphia's first settlers, brought the custom of visiting neighbors on "Second Day Christmas" (December 26) with them to Tinicum. This was soon extended through New Year’s Day with costumed celebrants loudly parading through the city.

Traditional New Years' celebrations of firing guns (Swedes and Finns) and recitations of traditional rhymes (English and Welsh) joined common practices of visiting neighbors. The Belsnickle, an early German version of Santa Claus, inspired comic masqueraders riding through Tinicum and Kingsessing dressed as clowns.

George Washington carried on the official custom of New Year's Day calls during the seven years he occupied First White House in Philadelphia. The Mummers continued their traditions of comic verse in exchange for cakes and ale. Small groups of up to twenty mummers, their faces blackened, went door to door, shooting and shouting, spoofing General Washington and the English Mummers' play "St. George and the Dragon".

Philadelphia's 19th century Carnival of Horns drew thousands of merrymakers in festive costumes to the vicinity of Eighth and South Streets in South Philadelphia. An 1808 law decreed that "masquerades" and "masquerade Balls" were "common nuisances" and that anyone participating would be subject to a fine and imprisonment. It was apparently never enforced and was repealed in 1859.

Henry Muhlenberg, writing in 1839, reported, "Men met on the roads in Tinicum and Kingsessing, who were disguised as clowns, shouting at the top of their voices and shooting guns.

Southern plantation life’s contributions include the Parade’s theme song, James A. Bland's Oh! Dem Golden Slippers (introduced by Charles Dumont in 1903), as well as the 19th-century cakewalk, dubbed the "Mummers' Strut". Other ethnic groups have been integrated into the parade as the years have gone on. Italians began to participate in large numbers after World War II.

Celebrants using firearms to "shoot in" the new year much later inspired the "New Year's Shooters and Mummers Association". Revelers travelling from door-to-door sang and danced for rewards of food and drink. Cash prizes debuted in 1906.

Early Swedish Mummers appointed a "speech director", who performed a special dance with a traditional rhyme:

Here we stand before your door,
As we stood the year before;
Give us whiskey; give us gin,
Open the door and let us in.
Or give us something nice and hot
Like a steaming hot bowl of pepper pot!

The earliest documented club, the Chain Gang, formed in 1840 and Golden Crown first marched in 1876 with cross-town rivals Silver Crown forming soon after. By 1881, a local report said "Parties of paraders" made the street "almost like a masked Ball."

The first official parade was held January 1, 1901. The earliest surviving String Band, Trilby, paraded in 1902. In the early years of the official parade, the make-shift costumes of most celebrants were gradually replaced by more elaborate outfits funded by associations’ fund-raising efforts.

While the Parade has clear African American influences and features a theme song by a black composer, the parade participants are almost all white. The earliest Parades were not. The all African American Golden Eagle Club, formed in 1866, had 300 members in the 1906 parade. With the nadir, the last black groups marched in 1929.

The Comics "wenches" and female parts in most skits are typically performed by men in drag. Women were not officially allowed in the Parade until the 1970s.

Location, time and route

The Mummers Parade traveled northward on Broad Street in Philadelphia for decades until the 1995 parade when the parade was moved to Market Street due to construction work on Broad Street (notably the "Avenue of the Arts" between Washington Ave. and City Hall). After construction was completed, the parade returned to Broad Street from 1996 to 1999. For various reasons, the parade was moved again to Market Street in 2000. In 2004, the parade was moved back to Broad Street. In 1997 the Fancy Brigades were moved to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, allowing for larger sets, but limiting audience size.

Each year, thousands of people participate in the parade, many wearing elaborate costumes costing tens of thousands of dollars to make and weighing well over 100 pounds. $395,000 in prizes is awarded to the various winners. The costs for making the outfits far exceed the prizes available. While club fund raisers, hall rentals, bank loans and the like often cover much of the expense, individual members frequently spend hundreds or thousands of dollars of their own money.

The parade begins at 9:00 AM and ends sometime before 8:00 PM. Fancy Brigades perform at the nearby Pennsylvania Convention Center at noon and, in a second, judged show, at 5:00 PM. An individual Mummers' strut -- a weaving, comical dance/walk with pumping arms held out to the side -- may last two or three hours from South Philadelphia to City Hall. The whole Parade, at close to 11 hours, may be the longest parade in the United States.

Incidents of foul weather have delayed the parade on occasions by several hours, including 2008. And an all-day postponement is required for foul weather, the parade is usually held the following Saturday (or Sunday, if Saturday is inclement), as the expensive and fancy costumes are easily harmed by precipitation or high winds.

Each year, there is a festival leading up to the parade called MummersFest. It allows fans to tour the Pennsylvania Convention Center to watch the Fancy Brigades build their floats and practice for their New Year's Day reveal.

Two Street

Mummer's Museum

Because of the large number of clubhouses there, South 2nd Street (Two Street) often serves as a party location after the parade, with the epicenter being South 2nd Street and Mifflin Street. Local residents and others in the area for the parade crowd the local bars, clubhouses and sidewalks, sometimes joining in the unofficial parade. With the parade they spent months preparing for over, the Mummers let loose and celebrate. This multi-block party continues well into the night or early morning, with some Mummers not sleeping for 24 hours straight.

• Mummers video from Two Street (2007) on YouTube

Blackened faces

The wearing of black face paint was once a traditional part of the parade. Growing dissent from civil rights groups and the offense of the black community led to most clubs phasing out blackface in the early 1960s. A 1964 city policy officially ruled out blackface but some still appears in the Parade.

With growing controversy, blackface is still a part of the relatedMummers or Darky Day in Cornwall, UK and Jonkonnu parades in the Caribbean.

Divisions

Comics

Comics are clowns in colorful outfits, often with multi-level umbrellas who dance to recordings such as "Golden Slippers". Themes often gently parody current events and traditional life. Prizes are awarded for floats, groups, brigades, couples, original costume, original character, and juvenile.

The comic clubs are Goodtimers[1], Landi[2], Liberty[3] and Murray[4]

Fancies

The Fancy Division is made up of four mother clubs: Adelphia, Golden Sunrise[5], Hog Island[6] and Oregon. Members strut in elaborate costumes to music provided by a live band. Prizes are awarded to individuals, trios, juveniles and Captains.

String Bands

String Bands provide the most elaborate performances and are most audience members' favorite part of the street parade. Limited to unamplified strings, reeds, and percussion; string bands feature banjos, saxophones, accordions, bass viols, drums, glockenspiels and violins in musical numbers tied to a theme presented by the captain, drill team and floats. Historically, String Bands performed mostly in military drill formations. Harrowgate String Band's first prize winning railroad tunes with Broadway-style dance in 1976 changed that. Sting Band shows are now the most elaborate of the street parade, outdone only by the Fancy Brigades indoor show.

String Bands include Aqua, Avalon[7], Broomall[8], Duffy[9], Durning[10], Ferko[11], Fralinger[12], Greater Kensington[13], Greater Overbrook[14], Hegeman[15], Irish American[16], Pennsport, Polish American[17], Quaker City[18], South Philadelphia[19], Trilby[20], Uptown[21] and Woodland[22].

Fancy Brigades

Until the late 1990s, the Fancy Brigades were simply larger presentations within the Fancies. As the props grew larger, more cumbersome and more vulnerable to wind, rain and snow, the decision was made to move the Brigades inside for a ticketed show at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Current Fancy Brigades include Avenuers, Cahills[23], Clevemore[24], Downtowners[25], Golden Crown, Jokers[26], Satin Slipper[27], Saturnalian[28], 2nd St Shooters[29], Shooting Stars[30] and South Philly Vikings[31].

Further Reading

• Kennedy, E.A. (2007). Life, Liberty, and the Mummers. Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1592135882. (reviewed with excerpt in Chronicle of Higher Education. Nov. 23, 2007 p. B19.)
• Masters, P. (2007). The Philadelphia Mummers: Building Community Through Play. Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1592136100.

External links

• Official site
• Mummers Parade, City of Philadlephia Recreation Department
• Mummers Fancy Brigade Association Web site
• National Geographic Feature