Happy Friday! Bit is off tomorrow so Saturday will be grocery day, so I’ll be around today as soon as I get up, probably around 9:30, 10 am EST. Fenna has one ear that’s trying to stand up. Rhenn’s is trying too, but I didn’t catch a picture of his yet.
Every New Year’s day, I watch the Mummers on Livestream. When I was a kid and lived in Pennsylvania, we watched them on TV every year. Now I’m glad I can watch them from Florida! I wanted to share some history with you, as well as some of my favorite performances from this year.
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Mummers existed in Europe from the 1600’s in multiple different cultures. They came over to the states with the settlers, and the parade became official in 1901. Over the years many things have threatened the parade, from wars to depressions, to fires claiming entire clubhouses and pandemics. Working together, the Mummers have rebuilt and found new sponsors and carried on.
You can see a lot of the costumes have really evolved over the years. Some of them, especially the fancy costumes, can cost tens of thousands of dollars each. Mummer clubs save costumes and alter them or renew them for use in other years, or they reuse materials from one to make something completely new another year. They are the ultimate recyclers. Here’s an early video of Mummers.
The Mummers have a museum in Philly, so even if you can’t make it there for New Years, you should stop by, if you’re in town, and see the costumes from over the century plus of the parade’s existence!
One of the larger groups of Mummers are the Wenches. This one was titled “Where Isn’t Waldo?” Many of the youngest mummers get their start here. Mummery becomes a family tradition handed down through generations.
The string bands have always been my favorites. Imagine playing an instrument, while dancing and wearing some of these costumes! This is the Quaker City String band’s performance of “Live at the Banana Cabana”.
And here is Fralinger, the band affected by the fire in 2012, with “Junkyard Jam”.
The Fancy Brigades used to be outdoors with the rest of the parade, but they went late into the night, and often there were added dangers like freezing rain and snow causing slips on the elaborate props. Now they are held indoors on a stage, and their performances have become even more elaborate and tech heavy in the past 10 years.
Here is the Clevemore Fancy Brigade with the performance of “Extraordinary”.
And last, the Downtowners with “Shattered Symphony”. Many of the costumes in this piece are wonderous, and the music is great as well.
There were many more performances than the ones I highlighted here. The parade in 2025 ran from 9 am until 5 pm. And the Fancy Brigades ran from 8pm to 10pm. You can find play backs on Youtube or on WFMZ.com.
