105-416: Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as rhymers , pace-eggers , soulers , tipteerers , wrenboys , and galoshins ). Historically, mummers' plays consisted of informal groups of costumed community members that visited from house to house on various holidays. Today the term refers especially to
210-506: A mum(en)schanz , a game of dice. This custom was practised by commoners as well as nobility. On Shrove Tuesday of 1557 Albert V, Duke of Bavaria went to visit the archbishop of Salzburg and played a game of dice with him. A similar incident, involving an Englishman, is attested for the French court by the German count and chronicler Froben Christoph von Zimmern: during carnival 1540, while
315-455: A sword dance wearing masks and visors covering their faces in the churchyard and in the courtyard of a house. They were fined 40 shillings each. In 1604 Tyberius Winchester was fined for "guising" through the town of Elgin with a pillowcase as a disguise and William Pattoun was accused of singing " hagmonayis ". In January 1600, Alexander Smith's daughter was accused of guising in Elgin dressed as
420-504: A Protestant, as any i'my Parish." The stage directions to The Springs Glorie , a 1638 court masque by Thomas Nabbes , state, "Christmas is personated by an old reverend Gentleman in a furr'd gown and cappe &c." Shrovetide and Christmas dispute precedence, and Shrovetide issues a challenge: "I say Christmas you are past date, you are out of the Almanack. Resigne, resigne." To which Christmas responds: "Resigne to thee! I that am
525-570: A ballad collected by Samuel Pepys , celebrated the revival of festivities in the latter part of the century: "Old Christmass is come for to keep open house / He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse, / Then come boyes and welcome, for dyet the chief / Plumb pudding, Goose, Capon, minc't pies & Roast beef". As interest in Christmas customs waned, Father Christmas's profile declined. He still continued to be regarded as Christmas's presiding spirit, although his occasional earlier associations with
630-575: A book on the White Boys compiled and edited by Stephen Miller was published in 2010; "Who wants to see the White Boys act?" The Mumming Play in the Isle of Man: A Compendium of Sources . It continues to be performed on the Saturday before Christmas each year. In Philadelphia every New Year's Day there is a Mummers' Day Parade that showcases pageantry and creativity. This grand parade has history in
735-542: A bringer of gifts. The popular American myth of Santa Claus arrived in England in the 1850s and Father Christmas started to take on Santa Claus's attributes. By the 1880s the new customs had become established, with the nocturnal visitor sometimes being known as Santa Claus and sometimes as Father Christmas. He was often illustrated wearing a long red hooded gown trimmed with white fur. Most residual distinctions between Father Christmas and Santa Claus largely faded away in
840-503: A collection of money. The practice may be compared with other customs such as those of Halloween, Bonfire Night , wassailing , pace egging and first-footing at new year . Although the term mummer has been in use since the Middle Ages, no scripts or details survive from that era and the term may have been used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds. The earliest evidence of mummers' plays as they are known today
945-512: A comical, bungled, unbelievable, or manufactured event as a "mummer's farce". There are several traditional songs associated with mumming plays; the "calling-on" songs of sword dance teams are related: Mummers' plays proper Other related customs Folk play Folk plays such as Hoodening , Guising , Mummers Play and Soul Caking are generally verse sketches performed in countryside pubs in European countries, private houses or
1050-453: A cradle". In Britain, the first evidence of a child writing letters to Father Christmas requesting gift has been found in 1895. The figure of Santa Claus had originated in the US, drawing at least partly upon Dutch St Nicolas traditions. A New York publication of 1821, A New-Year’s Present , contained an illustrated poem Old Santeclaus with Much Delight in which a Santa Claus figure on
1155-509: A decrepit horse that is close to death. In Lincolnshire , similar traditions were known as 'plough plays', many of these were collected by the folklorist Ethel Rudkin . All known Irish play scripts are in English though Irish custom and tradition have permeated mumming ceremony with famous characters from Irish history: Colmcille, Brian Boru, Art MacMorrough, Owen Roe O'Neill, Sarsfield and Wolfe Tone. The mummers are similar but distinct from
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#17328008465621260-468: A discussion between a town crier and a Royalist gentlewoman enquiring after Old Father Christmas who 'is gone from hence'. Its anonymous author, a parliamentarian , presents Father Christmas in a negative light, concentrating on his allegedly popish attributes: "For age, this hoarie headed man was of great yeares, and as white as snow; he entred the Romish Kallender time out of mind; [he]
1365-494: A dramatised version of the well-known Derby Ram folksong, known as the Derby Tup (another word for ram), has been performed, since at least 1895, by teams of boys. The brief play is usually introduced by two characters, an old man and an old woman ("Me and our owd lass"). The Tup was usually represented by a boy, bent over forwards, covered with a sack, and carrying a broomstick with a rough, wooden sheep's head attached. The Tup
1470-732: A few surviving traditional teams of mummers in England and Ireland, but there have been many revivals of mumming, often associated nowadays with morris and sword dance groups. These performances are comparable in some respects with others throughout Europe . Broadly comic performances, the most common type features a doctor who has a magic potion able to resuscitate the vanquished character. Early scholars of folk drama, influenced by James Frazer 's The Golden Bough , tended to view these plays as descendants of pre-Christian fertility ritual, but modern researchers have subjected this interpretation to criticism. The characters may be introduced in
1575-427: A fur gown, crowned with a holly wreath, and riding a yule goat . In an extended allegory, Hervey imagines his contemporary Old Father Christmas as a white-bearded magician dressed in a long robe and crowned with holly. His children are identified as Roast Beef (Sir Loin) and his faithful squire or bottle-holder Plum Pudding; the slender figure of Wassail with her fount of perpetual youth; a 'tricksy spirit' who bears
1680-460: A game or throw ( schanz ) of dice. Ingrid Brainard argues that the English word "mummer" is ultimately derived from the Greek name Momus , a god of mockery and scoff. Mummers' and guisers' plays were formerly performed throughout much of English-speaking Great Britain and Ireland , spreading to other English-speaking parts of the world including Newfoundland and Saint Kitts and Nevis . There are
1785-608: A good House, or else I do not know of One besides." When invited to spend Christmas with the squire, he comments "I will ... else I shall forget Christmas, for aught I see." Similar opinions were expressed in Round About Our Coal Fire ... with some curious Memories of Old Father Christmas; Shewing what Hospitality was in former Times, and how little there remains of it at present (1734, reprinted with Father Christmas subtitle 1796). David Garrick 's popular 1774 Drury Lane production of A Christmas Tale included
1890-406: A local school, Scoil Seamus Ennis, which has hosted mummering troupes from across Ireland and England. The group, The Armagh Rhymers , have been performing mummers' plays and other performances inspired by the traditional form since the 1970s. The Kirk Session records of Elgin name women who danced at New Year 1623 to the sound of a trumpet. Six men, described as guisers or "gwysseris" performed
1995-543: A man. This kind of dance and disguised "guising" through the town can be traced in various records. When Anne of Denmark came to Scotland in May 1590, twelve Edinburgh men performed a sword dance in costume with white shoes and floral hats, and other performed a Highland dance in costume. James VI himself wore a costume with a Venetian mask and danced at a wedding at Tullibardine in June 1591. In 1831, Sir Walter Scott published
2100-578: A means of defending Christmas from attacks by radical Protestants . Responding to a perceived decline in the levels of Christmas hospitality provided by the gentry, Ben Jonson in Christmas, His Masque (1616) dressed his Old Christmas in out-of-date fashions: "attir'd in round Hose, long Stockings, a close Doublet, a high crownd Hat with a Broach, a long thin beard, a Truncheon, little Ruffes, white shoes, his Scarffes, and Garters tyed crosse". Surrounded by guards, Christmas asserts his rightful place in
2205-407: A miserly Christmas character who refuses to keep the feast. He is reminded by Summer of the traditional role that he ought to be playing: "Christmas, how chance thou com’st not as the rest, / Accompanied with some music, or some song? / A merry carol would have graced thee well; / Thy ancestors have used it heretofore." Early 17th century writers used the techniques of personification and allegory as
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#17328008465622310-428: A pack on his back, in which is good store of all sorts, besides the fine knacks that he got out of their husbands' pockets for household provisions for him. He got Prentises, Servants, and Schollars many play dayes, and therefore was well beloved by them also, and made all merry with Bagpipes, Fiddles, and other musicks, Giggs, Dances, and Mummings." The character of 'Christmas' (also called 'father Christmas') speaks in
2415-545: A pamphlet of 1652, immediately after the English Civil War , published anonymously by the satirical Royalist poet John Taylor : The Vindication of Christmas or, His Twelve Yeares' Observations upon the Times . A frontispiece illustrates an old, bearded Christmas in a brimmed hat, a long open robe and undersleeves. Christmas laments the pitiful quandary he has fallen into since he came into "this headlesse countrey". "I
2520-426: A personified Christmas character who announced "Behold a personage well known to fame; / Once lov'd and honour'd – Christmas is my name! /.../ I, English hearts rejoic'd in days of yore; / for new strange modes, imported by the score, / You will not sure turn Christmas out of door!" By the late 18th century Father Christmas had become a stock character in the Christmas folk plays later known as mummers plays . During
2625-539: A play in which a number of characters are called on stage, two of whom engage in a combat, the loser being revived by a doctor character. This play is sometimes found associated with a sword dance though both also exist in Britain independently. Plays may be performed in the street or during visits to houses and pubs . They are generally performed seasonally, often at Christmas , Easter or on Plough Monday , more rarely on Halloween or All Souls' Day , and often with
2730-542: A quack Doctor who comes to restore the dead man to life. Other characters include: Old Father Christmas , who introduces some plays, the Fool and Beelzebub or Little Devil Doubt (who demands money from the audience). In Ynysmeudwy near Swansea groups of four boys dressed as Crwmpyn (hunchback) John, Indian Dark, Robin Hood and Doctor Brown took the play from house to house on Bonfire Night and were rewarded with money. Despite
2835-532: A reindeer sleigh brings presents for good children and a "long, black birchen rod" for use on the bad ones. In 1823 came the famous poem A Visit from St. Nicholas , usually attributed to the New York writer Clement Clarke Moore , which developed the character further. Moore's poem became immensely popular and Santa Claus customs, initially localized in the Dutch American areas, were becoming general in
2940-608: A rhyme which had been used as a prelude to the Papa Stour Sword Dance , Shetland in around 1788. It features seven characters, Saint George, Saint James, Saint Dennis, Saint David, Saint Patrick, Saint Anthony and Saint Andrew, the Seven Champions of Christendom . All the characters are introduced in turn by the Master, St. George. There is no real interplay between the characters and no combat or cure, so it
3045-610: A series of short speeches (usually in rhyming couplets) or they may introduce themselves in the course of the play's action. The principal characters, presented in a wide variety of manners, are a hero, most commonly Saint George , King George, or Prince George (but Robin Hood in the Cotswolds and Galoshin in Scotland), and his chief opponent (known as the Turkish Knight in southern England, but named Slasher elsewhere), and
3150-649: Is "no other than the Pelz Nickel of Germany ... the good Saint Nicholas of Russia ... He arrives in Germany about a fortnight before Christmas, but as may be supposed from all the visits he has to pay there, and the length of his voyage, he does not arrive in America, until this eve." In 1851 advertisements began appearing in Liverpool newspapers for a new transatlantic passenger service to and from New York aboard
3255-492: Is characterised by variants of a couplet closely reminiscent of John Taylor 's "But welcome or not welcome, I am come..." from 1652. The oldest extant speech is from Truro, Cornwall in the late 1780s: During the Victorian period , Christmas customs enjoyed a significant revival, including the figure of Father Christmas himself as the emblem of 'good cheer'. His physical appearance at this time became more variable, and he
Mummers' play - Misplaced Pages Continue
3360-499: Is from the mid- to late 18th century. Mummers' plays should not be confused with the earlier mystery plays . Mumming spread from the British Isles to a number of former British colonies. Ireland has its own unique history of mummers' play, and adopted the term for the tradition from the English language. The word mummer is sometimes explained to derive from Middle English mum ("silent") or Greek mommo ("mask"), but
3465-652: Is more likely to be associated with Early New High German mummer ("disguised person", attested in Johann Fischart ) and vermummen ("to wrap up, to disguise, to mask one's face"), which itself is derived from or came to be associated with mummen (first attested already in Middle High German by a prohibition in Mühlhausen , Thuringia , 1351) and mum(en)schanz , ( Hans Sachs , Nuremberg , 16th century), these latter words originally referring to
3570-411: Is more of a "calling-on song" than a play. Some of the characters dance solos as they are introduced, then all dance a longsword dance together, which climaxes with their swords being meshed together to form a "shield". They each dance with the shield upon their head, then it is laid on the floor and they withdraw their swords to finish the dance. St. George makes a short speech to end the performance. In
3675-450: Is old ...; he was full and fat as any dumb Docter of them all. He looked under the consecrated Laune sleeves as big as Bul-beefe ... but, since the catholike liquor is taken from him, he is much wasted, so that he hath looked very thin and ill of late ... But yet some other markes that you may know him by, is that the wanton Women dote after him; he helped them to so many new Gownes, Hatts, and Hankerches, and other fine knacks, of which he hath
3780-614: Is set around a particular version of the Guiser play / Sword Dance, the fictional "Dance of the Five Sons", performed on the "Sword Wednesday" of the Winter Solstice . The characters used in that dance are describes in great detail, in particular "The Fool", "The Hobbyhorse" and "The teaser" (called "Betty"). George RR Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire often features and references mummers, with characters regularly referring to
3885-554: The Oxford English Dictionary ). King portrays Father Christmas as a white-haired old man who is on trial for his life based on evidence laid against him by the Commonwealth . Father Christmas's counsel mounts the defence: "Me thinks my Lord, the very Clouds blush, to see this old Gentleman thus egregiously abused. if at any time any have abused themselves by immoderate eating, and drinking or otherwise spoil
3990-565: The Late Middle Ages incorporated both sacred and secular themes. In Norwich in January 1443, at a traditional battle between the flesh and the spirit (represented by Christmas and Lent), John Gladman, crowned and disguised as 'King of Christmas', rode behind a pageant of the months "disguysed as the seson requird" on a horse decorated with tinfoil. In most of England the archaic word ' Yule ' had been replaced by ' Christmas ' by
4095-571: The Lord of Misrule died out with the disappearance of the Lord of Misrule himself. The historian Ronald Hutton notes, "after a taste of genuine misrule during the Interregnum nobody in the ruling elite seems to have had any stomach for simulating it." Hutton also found "patterns of entertainment at late Stuart Christmases are remarkably timeless [and] nothing very much seems to have altered during
4200-607: The Morris dance has no direct link with folk plays, members of the Morris Federation , Open Morris and Morris Ring often perform mumming plays on the side. This theatre -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Father Christmas Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas . Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer , and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus , he
4305-601: The Protestant Church and protests against attempts to exclude him: "Why Gentlemen, doe you know what you doe? ha! would you ha'kept me out? Christmas, old Christmas? Christmas of London, and Captaine Christmas? ... they would not let me in: I must come another time! a good jeast, as if I could come more then once a yeare; why, I am no dangerous person, and so I told my friends, o'the Guard. I am old Gregorie Christmas still, and though I come out of Popes-head-alley as good
Mummers' play - Misplaced Pages Continue
4410-730: The Scottish Storytelling Centre . In 2019 they performed at the Scots Music School in Barga , Italy. First recorded in 1832, the Manx White Boys play features a song and a sword dance at its conclusion. Although the key traditional characters include St. George, St. Patrick and others, modern versions frequently adapt the play to contemporary political concerns. Characters featured since the 1990s include Sir MHK, Sir Banker, Expert and Estate Agent. A
4515-470: The "Lady bright and gay"). Tradition has it that ploughboys would take their plays from house to house and perform in exchange for money or gifts, some teams pulling a plough and threatened to plough up people's front gardens or path if they did not pay up. Examples of the play have been found in Denmark since the late 1940s. Around Sheffield and in nearby parts of northern Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
4620-405: The 'old, old, very old, gray-bearded gentleman' or his family to aid us in our search after them; and with their good help we will endeavor to restore them to some portion of their ancient honors in England". Father Christmas or Old Christmas, represented as a jolly-faced bearded man often surrounded by plentiful food and drink, started to appear regularly in illustrated magazines of the 1840s. He
4725-587: The 11th century, but in some places 'Yule' survived as the normal dialect term. The City of York maintained an annual St Thomas's Day celebration of The Riding of Yule and his Wife which involved a figure representing Yule who carried bread and a leg of lamb. In 1572, the riding was suppressed on the orders of Edmund Grindal , the Archbishop of York (term 1570–1576), who complained of the "undecent and uncomely disguising" which drew multitudes of people from divine service. Such personifications, illustrating
4830-453: The 18th century, had lost its association with gambling and dice. Other than this association there is no clear evidence linking these late medieval and early modern customs with English mumming. Although there are earlier hints (such as a fragmentary speech by St George from Exeter , Devon, which may date from 1737, although published in 1770), the earliest complete text of the "Doctor" play appears to be an undated chapbook of Alexander and
4935-430: The 1950s, A.L. Taylor collected surviving fragments of seasonal Scottish folk plays he described as "Galoshens" or "Galatians". Later, Emily Lyle recorded the oral history of fourteen people from the lowlands of Scotland recounting their memories of "Galoshin" dramas. Galoshin is the hero in a drama in the tradition of Robin Hood plays. Building on this research, Brian Hayward investigated the geographical distribution of
5040-512: The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador around Christmas. Mumming was used as a means of entertaining at feasts and functions, particular mention is made of one feast where 150 torch bearers lead the same number of mummers in, who would do acrobatics in a variety of costumes, including animal costumes. At certain feast days (e.g. saint's days), a lot of the populace would put on masks, and in practices that vary with geography, celebrate
5145-711: The Eagle Line's ship Santa Claus , and returning visitors and emigrants to the British Isles on this and other vessels will have been familiar with the American figure. There were some early adoptions in Britain. A Scottish reference has Santa Claus leaving presents on New Year's Eve 1852, with children "hanging their stockings up on each side of the fire-place, in their sleeping apartments, at night, and waiting patiently till morning, to see what Santa Claus puts into them during their slumbers". In Ireland in 1853, on
5250-462: The French king Francis I was residing at Angers , an Englishman ( ain Engellender ) wearing a mask and accompanied by other masked persons paid a visit to the king and offered him a momschanz (a game of dice). While mum(en)schanz was played not only by masked persons, and not only during carnival, the German word mummenschanz nevertheless took on the meaning "costume, masquerade" and, by
5355-1311: The King of Egypt , published by John White (d. 1769) in Newcastle upon Tyne between 1746 and 1769. The fullest early version of a mummers' play text is probably the 1779 "Morrice Dancers'" play from Revesby, Lincolnshire. The full text ("A petygree of the Plouboys or modes dancers songs") is available online. Although performed at Christmas, this text is a forerunner of the East Midlands Plough Monday ( see below ) plays. A text from Islip, Oxfordshire , dates back to 1780. A play text which had, until recently, been attributed to Mylor in Cornwall (much quoted in early studies of folk plays, such as The Mummers Play by R. J. E. Tiddy – published posthumously in 1923 – and The English Folk-Play (1933) by E. K. Chambers) has now been shown, by genealogical and other research, to have originated in Truro , Cornwall, around 1780. A play from an unknown locality in Cheshire , close to
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#17328008465625460-532: The King of good cheere and feasting, though I come but once a yeare to raigne over bak't, boyled, roast and plum-porridge, will have being in despight of thy lard-ship." This sort of character was to feature repeatedly over the next 250 years in pictures, stage plays and folk dramas. Initially known as 'Sir Christmas' or 'Lord Christmas', he later became increasingly referred to as 'Father Christmas'. The rise of puritanism led to accusations of popery in connection with pre- reformation Christmas traditions. When
5565-532: The Puritans took control of government in the mid-1640s they made concerted efforts to abolish Christmas and to outlaw its traditional customs. For 15 years from around 1644, before and during the Interregnum of 1649-1660 , the celebration of Christmas in England was forbidden. The suppression was given greater legal weight from June 1647 when parliament passed an Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals which formally abolished Christmas in its entirety, along with
5670-727: The United States by the middle of the century. The January 1848 edition of Howitt's Journal of Literature and Popular Progress , published in London, carried an illustrated article entitled "New Year's Eve in Different Nations". This noted that one of the chief features of the American New Year's Eve was a custom carried over from the Dutch, namely the arrival of Santa Claus with gifts for the children. Santa Claus
5775-512: The aftermath of the English Civil War . The Puritan -controlled English government had legislated to abolish Christmas, considering it popish , and had outlawed its traditional customs. Royalist political pamphleteers , linking the old traditions with their cause, adopted Old Father Christmas as the symbol of 'the good old days' of feasting and good cheer. Following the Restoration in 1660, Father Christmas's profile declined. His character
5880-472: The air, and demanding free drinks in taverns, and generally challenging middle and upper-class notions of order and decorum. Unable to suppress the custom, by the 1880s the city government began to pursue a policy of co-option, requiring participants to join organized groups with designated leaders who had to apply for permits and were responsible for their groups actions. By 1900, these groups formed part of an organized, city-sanctioned parade with cash prizes for
5985-447: The begging done for some charity rather than for the mummers themselves. Although the main season for mumming throughout Britain was around Christmas, some parts of England had plays performed around All Souls' Day (known as Souling or soul-caking ) or Easter ( Pace-egging or Peace-egging ). In north-eastern England the plays are traditionally associated with Sword dances or Rapper dances . In some parts of Britain and Ireland
6090-478: The best performances. About 15,000 mummers now perform in the parade each year. They are organized into four distinct types of troupes: Comics, Fancies, String Bands , and Fancy Brigades. All dress in elaborate costumes. There is a Mummers Museum dedicated to the history of Philadelphia Mummers. Thomas Hardy 's novel The Return of the Native (1878) has a fictional depiction of a mummers' play on Edgon Heath. It
6195-450: The book include both Santa Claus (complete with sleigh, stocking and chimney), leaving presents on Christmas Eve and—separately—Old Father Christmas. The Stocking of the title tells of how in England, "a great many years ago", it saw Father Christmas enter with his traditional refrain "Oh! here come I, old father Christmas, welcome or not ..." He wore a crown of yew and ivy, and he carried a long staff topped with holly-berries. His dress "was
6300-513: The border with Wales , dates from before 1788. Chapbook versions of The Christmas Rhime or The Mummer's Own Book were published in Belfast , c.1803-1818. A mummers' play from Ballybrennan, County Wexford , Ireland, dating from around 1817–18, was published in 1863. It is from the 19th century that the bulk of recorded texts derive. Mumming, at any rate in the South of England, had its heyday at
6405-576: The bowl and is on the best of terms with the Turkey; Mumming; Misrule, with a feather in his cap; the Lord of Twelfth Night under a state-canopy of cake and wearing his ancient crown; Saint Distaff looking like an old maid ("she used to be a sad romp; but her merriest days we fear are over"); Carol singing; the Waits; and the twin-faced Janus . Hervey ends by lamenting the lost "uproarious merriment" of Christmas, and calls on his readers "who know anything of
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#17328008465626510-403: The character wearing not only a holly wreath but also a gown with a hood. In a Hampshire folk play of 1860 Father Christmas is portrayed as a disabled soldier: "[he] wore breeches and stockings, carried a begging-box, and conveyed himself upon two sticks; his arms were striped with chevrons like a noncommissioned officer." In the latter part of the 19th century and the early years of the next
6615-486: The character wears a holly wreath , is shown sitting among food, drink and wassail bowl , and is dressed in the traditional loose furred gown—but in green rather than the red that later become ubiquitous. Old Father Christmas continued to make his annual appearance in Christmas folk plays throughout the 19th century, his appearance varying considerably according to local custom. Sometimes, as in Hervey's book of 1836, he
6720-537: The creatures, it is none of this old mans fault; neither ought he to suffer for it; for example the Sun and the Moon are by the heathens worship’d are they therefore bad because idolized? so if any abuse this old man, they are bad for abusing him, not he bad, for being abused." The jury acquits. Following the Restoration in 1660, most traditional Christmas celebrations were revived, although as these were no longer contentious
6825-403: The day. One practice in example was for a group to visit a local manor, and 'sing out' the lord. If the lord couldn't match verse for verse the singing group (alternating verses), then that lord would have to provide amenities. The formation of roving mumming groups became a popular practice so common it became associated with criminal or lewd behaviour, as the use of masks allowed anonymity; in
6930-504: The early 19th century, it coalesced with two other New Year customs, shooting firearms, and the Pennsylvania German custom of "belsnickling" (adults in masks questioning children about whether they had been good during the previous year). Through the 19th century, large groups of disguised (often in blackface ) working class young men roamed the streets on New Year's Day, organizing "riotous" processions, firing weapons into
7035-659: The early 20th century, but appears to have continued despite this condemnation. In 1935, the Carne Mummers were arrested for their street performance under the Dance Halls Act. In Fingal, the modern form of mummering was re-established by the Fingal Mummers in the 1980s, and is now documented as part of Ireland's National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage . A festival is held each October in Fingal by
7140-503: The early use of the term "mumming" appears to refer specifically to a performance of dicing with the host for costly jewels, after which the mummers would join the guests for dancing, an event recorded in 1377 when 130 men on horseback went "mumming" to the Prince of Wales, later Richard II . According to German and Austrian sources dating from the 16th century, during carnival persons wearing masks used to make house-to-house visits offering
7245-591: The early years of the 20th century, and modern dictionaries consider the terms Father Christmas and Santa Claus to be synonymous. The custom of merrymaking and feasting at Christmastide first appears in the historical record during the High Middle Ages (c 1100–1300). This almost certainly represented a continuation of pre-Christian midwinter celebrations in Britain of which—as the historian Ronald Hutton has pointed out—"we have no details at all". Personifications came later, and when they did they reflected
7350-501: The end of the 19th century and the earliest years of the 20th century. Most traditional mummers groups (known as "sides") stopped with the onset of the First World War, but not before they had come to the attention of folklorists. In the second half of the 20th century many groups were revived, mostly by folk music and dance enthusiasts. The revived plays are frequently taken around inns and public houses around Christmas time and
7455-526: The existing custom. The first known English personification of Christmas was associated with merry-making, singing and drinking. A carol attributed to Richard Smart, Rector of Plymtree in Devon from 1435 to 1477, has 'Sir Christemas' announcing the news of Christ's birth and encouraging his listeners to drink: " Buvez bien par toute la compagnie , / Make good cheer and be right merry, / And sing with us now joyfully: Nowell, nowell." Many Christmas customs of
7560-587: The folk play tradition in England rapidly faded, and the plays almost died out after the First World War taking their ability to influence the character of Father Christmas with them. In pre-Victorian personifications, Father Christmas had been concerned essentially with adult feasting and games. He had no particular connection with children, nor with the giving of presents. But as Victorian Christmases developed into family festivals centred mainly on children, Father Christmas started to be associated with
7665-472: The following century they became probably the most widespread of all calendar customs. Hundreds of villages had their own mummers who performed traditional plays around the neighbourhood, especially at the big houses. Father Christmas appears as a character in plays of the Southern England type, being mostly confined to plays from the south and west of England and Wales. His ritual opening speech
7770-523: The frequent presence of Saint George, the Dragon rarely appears although it is often mentioned. A dragon seems to have appeared in the Revesby Ploughboys' Play in 1779, along with a "wild worm" (possibly mechanical), but it had no words. In the few instances where the dragon appears and speaks its words can be traced back to a Cornish script published by William Sandys in 1833. In 1418 a law
7875-403: The giving of gifts. The Cornish Quaker diarist Barclay Fox relates a family party given on 26 December 1842 that featured "the venerable effigies of Father Christmas with scarlet coat & cocked hat, stuck all over with presents for the guests, by his side the old year, a most dismal & haggard old beldame in a night cap and spectacles, then 1843 [the new year], a promising baby asleep in
7980-402: The head of his numerous and uproarious family, might ride his goat through the streets of the city and the lanes of the village, but he dismounted to sit for some few moments by each man's hearth; while some one or another of his merry sons would break away, to visit the remote farm-houses or show their laughing faces at many a poor man's door." Seymour's illustration shows Old Christmas dressed in
8085-411: The historic documentary sources become fewer. In 1678 Josiah King reprinted his 1658 pamphlet with additional material. In this version, the restored Father Christmas is looking better: "[he] look't so smug and pleasant, his cherry cheeks appeared through his thin milk white locks, like [b]lushing Roses vail'd with snow white Tiffany ... the true Emblem of Joy and Innocence." Old Christmass Returnd ,
8190-427: The homes of their friends and neighbours. They would at times cover their faces with a hood, scarf, mask or pillowcase to keep their identity hidden. In keeping with the theme of an inversion of rules, and of disguise, crossdressing was a common strategy, and men would sometimes dress as women and women as men. Travelling from house to house, some mummers would carry their own musical instruments to play, sing and dance in
8295-402: The houses they visited. The host and hostess of these 'mummers parties' would serve a small lunch which could consist of Christmas cake with a glass of syrup or blueberry or dogberry wine. Some mummers would drink a Christmas "grog" before they leave each house, a drink of an alcoholic beverage such as rum or whiskey. One important part of the custom was a guessing game to determine the identity of
8400-506: The medieval fondness for pageantry and symbolism, extended throughout the Tudor and Stuart periods with Lord of Misrule characters, sometimes called 'Captain Christmas', 'Prince Christmas' or 'The Christmas Lord', presiding over feasting and entertainment in grand houses, university colleges and Inns of Court . In his allegorical play Summer's Last Will and Testament , written in about 1592, Thomas Nashe introduced for comic effect
8505-416: The next century either." The diaries of 18th and early 19th century clergy take little note of any Christmas traditions. In The Country Squire , a play of 1732, Old Christmas is depicted as someone who is rarely-found: a generous squire. The character Scabbard remarks, "Men are grown so ... stingy, now-a-days, that there is scarce One, in ten Parishes, makes any House-keeping. ... Squire Christmas ... keeps
8610-713: The old world, and performances in Philadelphia began in the year 1900. The parade traces back to mid-17th-century roots, blending elements from Swedish, Finnish, Irish, English, German, and other European heritages, as well as African heritage. The parade is related to the Mummers' Play tradition from Britain and Ireland. Revivals of this tradition are still celebrated annually in South Gloucestershire, England on Boxing Day along with other locations in England and in parts of Ireland on St. Stephen's Day and also in
8715-559: The open air, at set times of the year such as the Winter or Summer solstices or Christmas and New Year. Many have long traditions, although they are frequently updated to retain their relevance for contemporary audiences. With the rise in folklore studies as an academic discipline, research into folk plays has increased. Notable organizations in this area (in the UK in particular, often centred on Yorkshire) have included: In addition, although
8820-481: The other hand, presents were being left on Christmas Eve according to a character in a newspaper short story who says "... tomorrow will be Christmas. What will Santa Claus bring us?" A poem published in Belfast in 1858 includes the lines "The children sleep; they dream of him, the fairy, / Kind Santa Claus, who with a right good will / Comes down the chimney with a footstep airy ..." A Visit from St. Nicholas
8925-637: The other traditional church festivals of Easter and Whitsun . It was in this context that Royalist pamphleteers linked the old traditions of Christmas with the cause of King and Church, while radical puritans argued for the suppression of Christmas both in its religious and its secular aspects. In the hands of Royalist pamphlet writers , Old Father Christmas served as the symbol and spokesman of 'the good old days' of feasting and good cheer, and it became popular for Christmastide's defenders to present him as lamenting past times. The Arraignment, Conviction and Imprisoning of Christmas (January 1646) describes
9030-585: The other traditions such as wrenboys . The main characters are usually the Captain, Beelzebub , Saint Patrick , Prince George, Oliver Cromwell , The Doctor and Miss Funny. The tradition of the mummers' play is still present in areas of Ireland including County Fermanagh , County Tyrone , County Wexford , and the Fingal area of County Dublin . The practice was discouraged by the Catholic Church in
9135-677: The play in Scotland, and published Galoshins: the Scottish Folk Play , which includes several maps showing the locations where each version was performed. These are or were largely across the Central Belt of Scotland, with a strange and unexplained "outlier" at Ballater in Aberdeenshire. The Meadows Mummers are an all-female troupe who perform at local festivals inspired by both these writers, and by folk play workshops at
9240-482: The plays are traditionally performed on or near Plough Monday . These are therefore known as Plough plays and the performers as Plough-jags , Plough-jacks , Plough-bullocks , Plough-stots or Plough witches . The Plough plays of the East Midlands of England (principally Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire ) feature several different stock characters (including a Recruiting Sergeant, Tom Fool, Dame Jane and
9345-553: The southern Father Christmas replacing the northern Beelzebub character in a hybrid play. A spectator to a Worcestershire version of the St George play in 1856 noted, "Beelzebub was identical with Old Father Christmas." A mummers play mentioned in The Book of Days (1864) opened with "Old Father Christmas, bearing, as emblematic devices, the holly bough, wassail-bowl, &c". A corresponding illustration (below right) shows
9450-399: The time of Henry VIII, it was banned for a period. On documents such as receipts and bills from the late medieval, come details of mumming parties organised by English monarchs, Henry VIII being known for taking his court mumming incognito. Later, Henry would ban social mumming, and bring the 'masque' form of entertainment to England. " Mummering " is a Newfoundland custom that dates back to
9555-485: The time of the earliest settlers who came from England and Ireland. It shares common antecedents with the Mummers' Play tradition, but in its current form is primarily a house-visiting tradition. Sometime during the Twelve Days of Christmas, usually on the night of the "Old Twelfth" (17 January; equivalent to 6 January in the old Julian calendar ), people would disguise themselves with old articles of clothing and visit
9660-486: The visitors. As each mummer was identified, they would uncover their faces, but if their true identity is not guessed they did not have to unmask. The Mummers Festival takes place throughout December and includes workshops on how to make hobby horses and wren sticks . Mummers' plays were performed in Philadelphia in the 18th century as part of a wide variety of working-class street celebrations around Christmas. By
9765-404: The way that popular customs were seen, and most of the 19th century writers who bemoaned the state of contemporary Christmases were, at least to some extent, yearning for the mythical Merry England version. Thomas Hervey 's The Book of Christmas (1836), illustrated by Robert Seymour , exemplifies this view. In Hervey's personification of the lost charitable festival, "Old Father Christmas, at
9870-479: The youngest mummer in the group, first asks for food and then more urgently for money. Johnny Jack's wife and family were either dolls in a model house or sometimes a picture. Mummers and "guisers" (performers in disguise) can be traced back at least to 1296, when the festivities for the marriage of Edward I's daughter at Christmas included "mummers of the court" along with "fiddlers and minstrels". These "revels" and "guisings" may have been an early form of masque and
9975-431: Was based on the author's childhood experiences. Leo Tolstoy 's novel War and Peace (1869) has a depiction of mummers, including Nikolai Rostov , Natasha Rostova , and Sonya Rostova , making house-to-house visits. They are depicted as a boisterous crowd dancing and laughing in outrageous costumes where men are dressed as women and women are dressed as men. Ngaio Marsh 's detective story Off with His Head (1957)
10080-420: Was by no means always portrayed as the old and bearded figure imagined by 17th century writers. In his 1808 poem Marmion , Walter Scott wrote: Scott's phrase Merry England has been adopted by historians to describe the romantic notion that there was a Golden Age of the English past, allegedly since lost, that was characterised by universal hospitality and charity. The notion had a profound influence on
10185-557: Was dressed in a variety of costumes and usually had holly on his head, as in these illustrations from the Illustrated London News : Charles Dickens 's 1843 novel A Christmas Carol was highly influential, and has been credited both with reviving interest in Christmas in England and with shaping the themes attached to it. A famous image from the novel is John Leech's illustration of the ' Ghost of Christmas Present '. Although not explicitly named Father Christmas,
10290-415: Was in good hope that so long a misery would have made them glad to bid a merry Christmas welcome. But welcome or not welcome, I am come...." He concludes with a verse: "Lets dance and sing, and make good chear, / For Christmas comes but once a year." In 1658 Josiah King published The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas (the earliest citation for the specific term 'Father Christmas' recognised by
10395-782: Was killed by a Butcher, and sometimes another boy held a basin to catch the "blood". There is a Sheffield version where the Tup is killed and then brought back to life by the Doctor. This is the main play performed by the Northstow Mummers based in Cambridge . An ' Owd 'Oss play (Old Horse), another dramatised folksong in Yorkshire, was also known from roughly the same area, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, around Christmas. The custom persisted until at least 1970, when it
10500-453: Was maintained during the late 18th and into the 19th century by the Christmas folk plays later known as mummers' plays . Until Victorian times, Father Christmas was concerned with adult feasting and merry-making. He had no particular connection with children, nor with the giving of presents, nocturnal visits, stockings, chimneys or reindeer. But as later Victorian Christmases developed into child-centric family festivals, Father Christmas became
10605-479: Was originally part of a much older and unrelated English folkloric tradition. The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in the late Victorian period , but Christmas had been personified for centuries before then. English personifications of Christmas were first recorded in the 15th century, with Father Christmas himself first appearing in the mid 17th century in
10710-431: Was passed in London forbidding in the city "mumming, plays, interludes or any other disguisings with any feigned beards, painted visors, deformed or coloured visages in any wise, upon pain of imprisonment". Mumming was a way of raising money and the play was taken round the big houses. Most Southern English versions end with the entrance of "Little Johnny Jack his wife and family on his back". Johnny, traditionally played by
10815-471: Was performed in private houses and pubs in Dore on New Year's Day . A group of men accompanied a hobby horse (either a wooden head, with jaws operated by strings, or a real horse's skull, painted black and red, mounted on a wooden pole so that its snapping jaws could be operated by a man stooping under a cloth to represent the horse's body) and sang a version of The Old Horse or Poor Old Horse , which describes
10920-406: Was portrayed (below left) as a hunchback. One unusual portrayal (below centre) was described several times by William Sandys between 1830 and 1852, all in essentially the same terms: "Father Christmas is represented as a grotesque old man, with a large mask and comic wig, and a huge club in his hand." This representation is considered by the folklore scholar Peter Millington to be the result of
11025-746: Was published in England in December 1853 in Notes and Queries . An explanatory note states that the St Nicholas figure is known as Santa Claus in New York State and as Krishkinkle in Pennsylvania . 1854 marked the first English publication of Carl Krinkin; or, The Christmas Stocking by the popular American author Susan Warner . The novel was published three times in London in 1854–5, and there were several later editions. Characters in
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