We’re a couple of weeks away from New Year’s Day and the Philadelphia Mummer’s Parade but I figured posting something now would give any interested readers in the North East a chance to go check it out for themselves if they’ve never been. In this piece I’m going to go into the background of the tradition, some of its long standing controversies and a description of my experiences the one time I saw it for myself. I’ll also be comparing the spectacle to New Orleans’ far more famous Mardi Gras observances.
With its first official celebration on January 1, 1901 the Mummer’s Parade is the oldest continually running folk parade in the United States. Its origins go back to the 17th century when Scandinavian immigrants brought the tradition of dressing up in costume and visiting neighbors during Christmastide, or the days immediately following Christmas. This was an adaptation of a form of peasant’s theater from Ireland and England known as Mummers’ Plays.
These were plays performed exclusively by men that usually followed the stock plot of Saint George slaying an infidel, or Turkish, knight in combat, only for the fallen warrior to be resurrected by a Quack Doctor. The theme of a decidedly unchristian resurrection seems to point to a link to pagan fertility rituals that may have included human sacrifice but there is no concrete evidence of this. The story also bears a striking resemblance to the Christmas Tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Regional variations around Great Britain move the date to either Easter, All Soul’s Day or Plough Day, observed on January Sixth, and often replace the Infidel Knight with a costumed actor portraying a slaughtered livestock animal which is only sometimes resurrected. Additional stock characters include a fool in bells, a lady, the devil and a hobby horse with loudly snapping jaws as seen in the film The Wicker Man. Dances on top of sabers and games of dice are also frequent additions.
The Mummers’ Plays are a precursor to a form of court theater popular in the 16th and early 17th century called the masque. In a masque elaborate sets and costumes would be used to perform a story from history or mythology that paid tribute to the highest ranking audience member in attendance – usually a Royal or the Lord or Lady who owned the hall it was performed in. While professional actors recited bits of verse to explain the action, the members of the court were given masks and costumes to participate in a dance and the honored patron generally sat silently in costume to portray the story’s hero.
The apex of masque theatre is generally considered to be a series of productions for the Tudor Court by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. While Jonson wrote the texts, Jones was responsible for costume and set design. He innovated special placement of actors for dramatic effect, the use of colored light and special machinery to animate or change pieces of scenery. He was also an important architect and brought the idea of Classical Revival to England with the Queen’s House.
Returning to the concept of silent roles in masque productions, it would be understandable to conclude that the origin of the word mummery lies in the silence of performers – like in the expression “mum’s the word”. Actually Mummers’ Plays generally do include short speeches from each of the characters to explain actions and motivations. I read through several potential etymologies for the term but the most compelling suggested it was derived from the Greek God Momus – the personification of satire and mockery.
The tradition has always included the suspension and inversion of social norms. The disguised performers would take the show to the homes of their wealthier neighbors and demand food, strong drink and even money as payment. These were not idle demands but bolstered by the threat of various kinds of mischief – including literally plowing up a neighbor’s fields and gardens in the Plough Monday variation. In many cases this meant tenant farmers would be visiting their landlords.
Toward the beginning of the Twentieth Century the version practiced around Philadelphia began to be seen as a genuine threat to the social order. The practice of insisting on food and drink was carried over with this formulaic 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 bowl of pepper pot!”
Other traditions that carried over from Europe were the practices of celebrants discharging firearms into the air and “blacking up” or wearing black-face. While black-face continues to plague the event in Philadelphia, with performance names like “A Return To Minstrelry” dispelling any doubt as to the white practitioner’s intentions, there is evidence that the original purpose was not racial in nature.
Mummer’s Day in England is often referred to as Darking Day, colloquially shortened to Darkie Day, and until recently included the same black face paint. The original purpose was to highlight the relative darkness of the Winter Solstice, a corresponding Summer Solstice festival used white face paint, and to protect the lower class revelers from being recognized and punished by their wealthier neighbors if they got into too much mischief. This innocent context was complicated by the more recent adoption of American “minstrel songs” and in 2017 The Association of Mummers in England and Wales announced that they would be ending the practice of “blacking up”.
Racial sensitivity would have been the last thing on the minds of lawmakers in 19th Century Philadelphia but the dark faces, firearms and disruptive behavior, combined with the working class origins of the celebrants were deemed overly chaotic and dangerous. An 1808 law declaring “masquerades” to be “public nuisances” and punishable by fine and imprisonment was passed but in the absence of successful enforcement (Philadelphia’s Mummers’ Clubs have always included large numbers of police) it was repealed in 1859.
The city turned instead to requiring the various clubs to publicly register, keep membership logs and obtain permits. The first official club was called Chain Gang and formed in 1840. Other clubs with names like Golden Crown and rivals Silver Crown followed and by the turn of the century the activities were creating large enough crowds that throwing an official parade was the best solution. Since January 1, 1901 the parade has been repeated in the same time and place with only three cancellations: in 1919 for the Spanish Flu, 1934 for The Great Depression and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While most waves of European immigrants, like the Italians and Irish, have successfully integrated into the Mummers’ Clubs, in a city as diverse as Philadelphia the event remains strikingly white. In reality the earliest days of the event did include Black clubs: the all-Black Golden Eagle Club formed in 1866 and marched with 300 members by the 1906 parade. However, prizes are awarded after each parade by an anonymous panel of judges who have historically exhibited clear and irrefutable bias against any non-white parading clubs.
In 1929 Octavius Catto, the last remaining Black club, withdrew and disbanded after receiving the lowest marks of any marching group. While one of the visual highlights of the parade are the String Bands who march in elaborate costumes while playing banjos, violins, and woodwinds, some of the Comic Brigades do hire Brass Bands with Black members as accompaniment. These musicians do not wear costumes though and are clear about not belonging to any Mummers’ Club.
It would make sense to draw some comparisons to Mardi Gras observances in and around New Orleans. The first Mardi Gras parade and ball was organized by a man of French-Creole ancestry named Bernard de Marigny in 1833 but the origins of the festival as it is now celebrated are generally traced to The Mistick Krewe of Comus. Comus was founded by a group of six businessmen who were not just white, but specifically Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, in 1856. That year they held their first parade and ball and created the concept of a “krewe” – a secret society created specifically for these and additional purposes.
Other krewes with their own organizations and parades followed and in 1909 an unofficial procession by a Black marching group previously known as The Tramps began what grew to become The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club in 1916. I’m not sure if Mardi Gras parades are officially judged but with every krewe having their own specific route and time the crowds themselves are a testament to relative popularity.
While the parade with the highest attendance is the Krewe of Endymion there is no question that Zulu is among the most anticipated and best received Mardi Gras parades.
In 1991 New Orleans passed a city ordinance that parade permits would only be issued to groups that could demonstrate they did not discriminate against potential members on the basis of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or disability. Rather than integrate, The Mistick Krewe of Comus chose to stop publicly parading but they still continue to hold an annual ball. Several of their parades had historically featured overt white supremacist themes and there’s little doubt that their secret membership roles would overlap those of another secret society called the Ku Klux Klan.
Comus was heavily inspired by a Mardi Gras organization in nearby Mobile, Alabama called Cowbellion de Rakin Society. Mobile has the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in the United States and the 2008 documentary film The Order of Myths highlights their continued racial segregation. I’m not sure if anything has changed there since the film was made but I wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t.
In addition to Zulu, New Orleans is known for the specifically Black traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians and processions that happen around the year after funerals called Second Lines. The history of the Indians is not as well documented as some of the krewes but they are said to have arisen as a tribute to cooperation between Native Americans and escaped slaves. Participation in Indian “masking” is passed down hereditarily, much like membership in Philadelphia’s Mummer’s Clubs, and characterized by crafting and wearing elaborate suits made from colored ostrich plumes and intricate beadwork.
When the ordinance was passed that all parading krewes had to be integrated, the Krewe of Rex specifically invited three Black members and Zulu most likely had white members even before 1991 – it can be hard to tell behind the signature black and white face paint. The last time I was in New Orleans, 2015 I think, I definitely still saw parades where it felt like a bunch of masked white men rode all the floats and horses while the Black participants were relegated to holding up flaming torches and following behind to sweep the horse shit.
It didn’t feel that different from the vibe of an all-white Mummers’ Club marching with a hired Black band.
New Orleans and Philadelphia are both historically Black cities but there’s certain things you expect in the famously racist South that might not be as expected in the North. Comparing Mummers’ to Mardi Gras however leaves the second one looking significantly better. Long before 1991, New Orleans Mardi Gras was awash with Black traditions that existed alongside the white parades and balls that were then closed off to half the city.
Especially damning is the fact that the Mummers’ Parade did have Black clubs around the time it started but after years of disrespect they got the message and moved on. The Golden Eagle Club could have had a similar story to the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, but with only one parade and judges protected by anonymity it made sense to throw in the towel. It can feel compelling to say they should have stuck things out to prove a point but after years of pouring money and energy into a space that clearly neither wants or appreciates you what point could you possibly be proving?
In a lot of ways Mummers’ Day can feel like Mardi Gras’ evil twin. The last Mardi Gras I attended in New Orleans was surprisingly cold but still nothing compared to the painful chill of Philadelphia on New Year’s Day. Excessive drinking is a huge component of both events but while the mood in New Orleans stays light and jovial, the energy in Philadelphia, in my experience at least, has a palpable undercurrent of aggression.
This seems like a good time to go into my personal Mummers’ Day story. I first learned about the event when Sugar Tea showed me a video of the 2008 presentation of the Polish American String Band called Ghouls Gone Wild. I’d been to Mardi Gras and seen some of the parades at this point but none of that prepared me for the spectacle on the video.
Hordes of Draculas, Wolfmans and Frankenstein’s Monsters decked out in sequins, metallic fabrics and peacock plumes marched in formation while playing a variety of instruments. An invisible army of helpers moved around spooky trees, gravestones and other bits of scenery. A drill master directed the action in the guise of an extravagant undead witch doctor. I pulled an image for this piece’s header but I’ve also embedded the video below if anybody wants to see for themselves.
From the moment I saw this video I became obsessed with Mummers’ Day and made sure to travel to Philadelphia and see it for myself the next time it happened in 2009. I think I played a Bleak End set at an afterparty show held at Party Steve’s longtime residence The Pinkhouse but I can’t remember if I got a ride from Chicago or used a counterfeit Greyhound Pass. A decent chunk of Chicago folks were there so it was most likely the former.
The cold was daunting but I still went out in my standard Baroque-themed fancy dress outfit from that era: a curly white wig and green wool frock coat with metallic vest and leggings. I’ve been incorporating traditionally feminine elements into my outfits, and wearing makeup, for as long as I’ve been picking out my own clothes so I’ve gotten pretty used to homophobic slurs and street harassment.
Before this particular experience I would have said that I always got it the worst in Baltimore. I was recently talking with my friend Rusty who thought he dressed just as “weird” as me but never got harassed and we joked that the issue wasn’t so much about me looking “gay” as distinctly Californian. Regardless Rusty is kind of full of it as I’ve never seen him in a skirt or eye makeup.
Anyway Philadelphia on Mummers’ Day blew Baltimore out of the water. I was with a group of friends but there were moments where I felt, had I been alone, that I could have easily been dragged into an alley and assaulted or worse. Everyone I ran into in Mummer dress was glaring at me in furious repugnance and any verbal greetings I was offered included slurs:
“Happy New Year ya fucking tranny!”
What made this experience especially surreal was that most of it was coming from members of the Wench Brigades – groups of men strutting in frilly satin gowns while carrying parasols. They do wear what could be called “makeup” but it looks like the solid colored face paint popular at football games and they opt for bandanas rather than long haired wigs. The irony wasn’t lost on me that, in an antiquated but distinctly masculine style of clothing, I was being called a cross dresser by men in literal dresses.
I’ve read a few articles about the city of Philadelphia working to clean up the Mummers’ Parade’s image and the general consensus seems to be that most of the problematic behavior comes from members of the Wench Brigades and Comic Brigades. Regardless of the symbolism around the Winter Solstice in England’s Darking Day, the use of blackface in Philadelphia’s event is undeniably derisive racial caricature. I didn’t see any outright examples in 2009 but there were quite a few Mummers marching in brownface like the pair pictured above.
Philadelphia officially banned the use of blackface in the parade way back in 1964 but two members of a Comic Brigade were fined and removed from the parade for wearing it as recently as 2020. There have also been instances of using other dark colors for the same effect – I read about a Minstrel themed performance where a Mummer in dark blue facepaint with a kinky wig made suggestive movements to an Al Jolson song.
The Comic Brigades have also attracted negative attention in recent years for performing skits with misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic themes. The purpose of these brigades is to satire and poke fun at current events but I’ve been to numerous Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans that mock local politics and public figures without slipping into those particular tropes. Mardi Gras is also palpably inclusive when it comes to diverse sexual orientations – something I can not say for the Mummers’ Parade.
After the parade is over and the judges have handed out the scores, the party moves over to Second Street in South Philly. The box trucks that the various clubs had used to transport their staging props and heavily costumed members to the parade are now loaded up with sound systems and DJ lights for an outdoor dance party. While the parade itself does attract a reasonably diverse crowd, the celebrants at this stage are overwhelmingly white for reasons that would soon become apparent.
Mummers’ Day is a drinking holiday and for a large portion of the crowd this had clearly started at dawn. I’d been getting called “faggot” and “tranny” all day but the mood here was uglier and the threat of violence hung heavier in the air. Anybody who looked different received hostile scrutiny and I could see why anyone who wasn’t white wouldn’t feel particularly comfortable here.
The moment that really put things in perspective was when one of the DJs put a popular Rap song from the previous Summer onto his truck’s sound system. The crowd broke into angry jeers and even started physically pushing against the sides of the truck. The song was abruptly stopped, trainwrecked in DJ parlance, and replaced with Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The USA – also known as the “I’m proud to be an American” song. Everybody started cheering and singing along as the festive energy returned.
I didn’t much feel like hanging around after that and left not long after.
There are five categories for the Mummers Parade – I’ve already mentioned Comic and Wench Brigades and included a video of a String Band performance. That leaves Fancy, single performers who march in costumes almost as complex as Mardi Gras Indians, and Fancy Brigades who only perform their drills at a private event inside the Convention Center. I’d never seen a Fancy Brigade before but I looked up a video and they are similar to String Bands except they don’t play instruments and use set pieces that wouldn’t be feasible outdoors – especially if it happened to be raining or snowing.
For most parade-goers, myself included, the largest draw is the String Bands and for the most part their performances are family friendly and socially conscious. There have been some recent themes that raised eyebrows though – usually around costumes based on ethnic caricatures. The current mayor of Philadelphia, along with imposing a seventy-five dollar fine and five year parading ban on any Mummer wearing blackface, has instituted a cultural sensitivity training camp for club members to prevent further incident.
Predictably many Philadelphians, like the author of the article linked below, are less than thrilled with these changes. The author, who has marched as a Mummer himself, makes the tired argument that the environment of the parade can not be homophobic because LGBTQ individuals work behind the scenes on sets and costumes. The next Mummers’ Parade will mark fifteen years since I’ve been in person but I’m dubious that the hostile attitudes I felt firsthand have dissipated in that time.
https://stubykofsky.com/a-mummers-parade-without-controversy-wow/
The larger concern is that the parade remains overwhelmingly white. Not every public celebration needs to be ethnically diverse – you’d expect the participants in Brooklyn’s Giglio Feast to be Italian Americans or the Lion Dancers in a Lunar New Year Parade to be of East Asian heritage. Philadelphia is a diverse city though and considering that the Mummers’ Parade is not specifically linked to any one European nation it’s disconcerting that so many groups are conspicuously absent.
Women first began marching in the parade some time in the 1970’s – by all accounts due to declining club membership rather than any desire to be inclusive. I couldn’t find a conclusive statement as to whether any of the existing clubs discriminate against potential members by race but it feels fairly clear who is or isn’t welcome. The city hasn’t given any direct funding or prize money to the parade since 2009 but it does foot the bill for crowd control, security and cleanup: $654,000 in 2022.
Recent versions of the parade have been more diverse but the newer additions tend not to be involved in the most elaborate productions and tend not to return. It’s basically a question of money. When I talked to Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans the general consensus was that constructing each year’s suit cost about as much as a new car. A huge part of that goes to the thousands of glass beads and the countless hours of labor required to turn them into mosaic panels. A quick glance at the highest end Mummers’ Day costumes shows that they also represent a hefty expenditure.
Descendants of the members of the Golden Eagle Club and Octavius Catto Club almost certainly still live in Philadelphia but considering the history of discrimination it’s understandable that they aren’t jumping to spend piles of cash to resume participating in a competition where the judges remain anonymous and therefore unaccountable. The traditions of The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club and the Mardi Gras Indians are as robust and vital as they are because they were created by Black New Orleanians for Black New Orleanians.
For any number of reasons no direct analogue developed in Philadelphia. It could be that Mardi Gras was always lots of different parades so the natural reaction to being excluded from one was to create your own. Mummers’ Day has only ever been the one parade so it makes sense that groups of people who were made to feel unwelcome simply walked away. There doesn’t seem to be a simple solution and no amount of changes will ever cleanse the event of the stain of its racist past.
When I went myself I was most excited to see the String Bands performing their choreographed drills but between the freezing cold and the shock of near constant harassment I never got the best look at them. In certain respects it’s a better experience just to watch the whole thing on television. On the other hand there were a decent amount of friendly Mummers as well and I enjoyed watching the members of a Wench Brigade drunkenly attempt to demonstrate their special parading strut that had been passed down for generations.
If I were anywhere near Philadelphia this New Year’s Day I’d go again in a heartbeat.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Parade
https://www.britannica.com/art/mumming-play
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers%27_play
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummer%27s_Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistick_Krewe_of_Comus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_Social_Aid_%26_Pleasure_Club
Adventures in the Undiscovered Interior of Underground America 