Philadelphia invites you to the annual Mummer's Parade on New Year's Day. Ten thousand costumed characters are expected to participate, and even more will watch, as they have for 124 years.
The tradition grew out of an ancient custom in which people would disguise themselves and go from house to house, often giving a performance of some kind, and then receiving food or money for their efforts. It was connected to the Roman festival of Saturnalia, the beginning of the agricultural year. It spread to Europe during the Middle Ages and gained the names mumming or mummering, and became known as the mummer's play. Different European cultures began to mummer for their own holidays in their own way.
The custom became associated with Christmas in the form of wassailing or caroling (and with Mari Lwyd in Wales), and with New Year's Day in the form of first footing. It also morphed into the Pace Egg Play for Easter. It's seen in Plough Monday celebrations, which is also the beginning of the agricultural year. Several components of mummering were incorporated into Carnival and Mardi Gras celebrations. And of course you can see the origins of Halloween trick-or-treat in the mummering customs of Samhain. When European immigrants came to America, they brought these customs along, changing and adapting them for use in the New World.
(Image credit: Carol M. Highsmith via the Library of Congress)
