mummers
{{Short description|Medieval European performers}}
File:Bodleiana Ms 264 fol 21v.jpg. The image is not labeled and these have been interpreted as "mummers" and "minstrels."{{cite web |first= Donna
|last= Seger |date= 24 December 2014 |title=Mummers Mumming |url= https://streetsofsalem.com/2014/12/24/mummers-mumming/#:~:text=A%2014th%2Dcentury%20manuscript%20in,the%20eighteenth%20and%20nineteenth%20centuries.|quote= A 14th-century manuscript in the Bodleian Library contains the first illustration of mummers, costumed players or “guisers” performing occasionally out-of-doors in a merry band, for amusement and/or some form of compensation. These mummers, wearing masks of stag, rabbit, and horse heads...}}{{cite book |title=The English Medieval Minstrel |first= John |last= Southworth |publisher= Boydell Press |place= New Hampshire |date= 1989|page= 18 |quote=Dancing minstrels wearing masks. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS 264, f.21v.}}]]
Mummers were bands of men and women from the medieval to early modern era who (during public festivities) dressed in fantastic clothes and costumes and serenaded people outside their houses, or joined the party inside.{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia= Encyclopedia Britannica (1911) |volume=18 |entry= Mummers |url= https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Mummers}} Costumes were varied and might include bears, unicorns, deer (with deer hides and antlers) or rams (with rams' horns). The practice was widespread in Europe, present in England, Ireland and Scotland, with words for it in German and French. The practice dates back to the Romans and has survived in some areas (such as Scotland) and is used in the holiday tradition of Mummer's plays. It has also been revived in the modern Mummer's Parade. The practice may also be related to miming.
History
Mumming was preceded by the Roman holiday Saturnalia, in which partiers masqueraded. Feasts of Pallas Athena included "visars and painted visages." The holiday was a time of "frequent and luxurious feastings amongst friends, presents were mutually sent, and changes of dress made."
Some of these habits carried over to Christmas, including exchanging clothes and visiting neighbors "in the manner which Germans call mummery," wassailing, and Saint Stephen's Day celebrations. In 1377, citizens of London dressed in mummery to amuse the son of Edward the Black Prince. In England, the tradition became associated with obnoxious behavior and led King Henry VIII to declare the wearing of masks to be a misdemeanor. In Scotland, mummers are called guisards and traditionally put on a "rude drama" called Galatian.
Mumming was labeled part of "the progeny of Father Christmas" by Ben Jonson in his 1616 play Chrismas Masque. In the 18th into the 19th century, mummers were mimes, actors, largely specializing in Christmas.{{cite dictionary |dictionary= New Oxford American Dictionary (3 ed.) |entry= mummers |editor1= Angus Stevenson |editor2= Christine A. Lindberg |publisher= Oxford University Press |date= 2010 |isbn= 9780195392883 |url= https://www-oxfordreference-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/10.1093/acref/9780195392883.001.0001/m_en_us1269908?rskey=rN9pw5&result=8}} The idea of mumming in the 19th century was that it looked back to "simpler times" and mumming antics became part of a "controlled expression of seasonal 'misrule'".
Etymology
The word mummers appears in late Middle English. It derived from the Old French word momeur, itself from momer ("to act in a mime").{{cite dictionary |dictionary= Oxford English Dictionary (3rd Edition) |publisher= Oxford University Press|date=2010 |editor= Angus Stevenson |entry= Mummer|url= }}
Mummery ties to the similar Old French word mommerie.{{cite dictionary |title= The concise Oxford dictionary of current English |entry= mummer (also mum and mumble)|date= 1919 |page= 533 |author1=H. W. Fowler |author2= F. G. Fowler |publisher= Oxford; Clarendon Press |url=https://archive.org/details/con00ciseoxforddicfowlrich/page/532/mode/1up}}
The word is related to mum (silence, mum's the word), mum (to act in a dumb show), mumble (to speak indistinctly, silent utterance) and murmer.
File:Dancers (mummers and ladies) dance to handbells and tabor, MS Bodley 264, folio 110r.jpg|Not limited to Christmas in this image, partiers dressed as dogs and monkeys dance with ladies.
File:Drum from PSALTERIUM TRIPLEX, St John's College Cambridge, manuscript B.18, folio 1r.jpg|Early 12th century A.D., England. Image of demon or bear playing drum, possible mummer.
File:Jan Steen - Nocturnal Serenade - WGA21755.jpg|Revelers, some in mummers' garb, serenading in the Netherlands, playing a bumbass.
File:St. Stephens Day (26 December) in Dingle, Co Kerry.jpg|1990s, Ireland. "Wren boys" parading on Saint Stephen's Day.
File:Mummers02.jpg|Mummers performing in Exeter, Devon in 1994
File:2010 Mummers New Year's Day Parade (4235128343).jpg|2010, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mummer in the 2010 Mummers New Year's Day Parade.