Mummers Parade
The Mummers Parade is held each New Year's Day in Philadelphia. It started in 1901, and is the longest-running continuous folk parade in the United States.
Local clubs, usually called "New Years Associations" or "New Years Brigades", compete in one of five categories: Comics, Wench Brigades, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades. They prepare elaborate costumes, performance routines, and movable scenery, which take months to complete. This is done in clubhousesmany of which are on or near 2nd Street in the Pennsport neighborhood of the city's South Philadelphia sectionwhich also serve as social gathering places for members.
Multiple Philadelphia television stations have aired the parade through its history; beginning in 2023, the latest of these is Wilmington, Delaware-licensed WDPN-TV, known as MeTV 2, which also provides live stream coverage through the website of its sister station WFMZ-TV in nearby Allentown, Pennsylvania. On at least several occasions, the parade has been nationally televised. In 1994 and again in 1995, it was televised by the Travel Channel. In 2009 and 2010, parts of the parade were televised nationally on WGN America and WGN-TV.
History
17th century
The parade traces back to mid-17th-century roots, blending elements from Swedish, Finnish, Irish, English, German, and other European heritages.The parade is related to the Mummers Play tradition from Great 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 Saint Stephen's Day and also in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador around Christmas.
Swedes and Finns, early European colonists in the Philadelphia area, brought the custom of visiting neighbors on "Second Day Christmas" with them to Tinicum. This was soon extended through New Year's Day with costumed celebrants loudly parading through the city. They appointed a "speech director", who performed a special dance with a traditional rhyme:
18th century
The Mummers derive their name from the Mummers' plays performed in Philadelphia in the 18th century as part of a wide variety of working class street celebrations around Christmas. By the early 19th century, these coalesced with earlier Swedish customs, including the Christmas neighbor visits and shooting firearms on New Year's Day as well as the Pennsylvania German custom of "belsnickling," where adults in disguise questioned children about their behavior during the previous year.U.S. President George Washington carried on the official custom of New Year's Day calls during the seven years he occupied President's House in Philadelphia. The Mummers continued their traditions of comic verse in exchange for cakes and ale. Small groups of up to twenty mummers, their faces blackened, went door to door, shooting and shouting, and adapting the English Mummer's play by replacing the character of "King George" with that of "General Washington."
19th century
Throughout the 19th century, large groups of disguised and sometimes blackfaced working class young men roamed the streets on New Year's Day, organizing processions, firing weapons into the air, demanding free drinks in taverns, and generally challenging middle and upper-class notions of order and decorum.An 1808 law decreed that "masquerades" and "masquerade halls" were "common nuisances" and that anyone participating would be subject to a fine and imprisonment. It was apparently never successfully enforced and was repealed in 1859. Henry Muhlenberg, writing in 1839, reported, "Men met on the roads in Tinicum and Kingsessing, who were disguised as clowns, shouting at the top of their voices and shooting guns.
By the 1880s, unable to suppress the custom, the Philadelphia 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. The earliest documented club, the Chain Gang, had formed in 1840 and Golden Crown first marched in 1876 with cross-town rivals Silver Crown forming soon after. By 1881, a local report said "Parties of paraders" made the street "almost like a masked Ball." By 1900, these groups formed part of an organized, city-sanctioned parade with cash prizes for the best performances.
Southern plantation life's contributions include the parade's theme song, James A. Bland's "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers", as well as the 19th-century cakewalk, dubbed the "Mummers' Strut" or the "2 Street Strut".
20th century
The first official parade was held January 1, 1901. The first string band, Trilby, was organized in 1898, first paraded in 1902, and last paraded in 2016 after not marching in the previous parade. In the early years of the official parade, the makeshift costumes of most celebrants were gradually replaced by more elaborate outfits funded by associations' fund-raising efforts.The official parade has been cancelled only thrice during its history. One happened in 1919 as a result of the Spanish Flu epidemic when many public events were cancelled; another occurred in 1934 due to the effects of the Great Depression and a lack of prize money; and 2021 on grounds of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As they assimilated to Philadelphia, many immigrant groups have joined the tradition. Numerous Irish immigrants and Irish-Americans from South Philadelphia became involved in the Mummers Parade as both Mummers performers and parade goers. Other ethnic groups were soon integrated into the parade through the years. Italian-Americans and Italian immigrants to South Philadelphia began to participate in the Mummers Parade in large numbers after World War II. While South Philadelphia remains one of the most important centers for Mummers traditions and Mummers members, more recent immigrants to the neighborhood from Asia and Latin America generally have fewer ties to the parade and tradition.
While almost all parade participants are currently white, African American mummers existed in the past. The all African American Golden Eagle Club, formed in 1866, had 300 members in the 1906 parade, for example. Judges systematically discriminated against black clubs, however, and the last, the Octavius Catto Club, withdrew after receiving last place in the 1929 parade. The brass bands hired to accompany the Comic Brigades often include black musicians, but do not dress in costume and consider themselves session musicians rather than Mummers. By 1964, only one African American mummer, Willis Fluelling, remained. As of 2007, a few of the less traditional clubs, such as Spiral Q Puppet Theater's West Philadelphia Mummers Brigade, were integrated.
The comic "wenches" and other female roles in most skits are typically performed by men in drag. Women were not officially allowed in the parade until the 1970s.
The South Philly Vikings ran Viking Hall in the 1980s and 1990s, the venue today known as 2300 Arena.
21st century
As of 2008, the parade cost the city over $1 million each year, including $750,000 for police and parade services and $360,000 in prize money. The 2008 budget crisis led the city to propose closing numerous libraries and firehouses and the scaling back of expenditures for the parade, offering $300,000 for the 2009 parade and nothing for 2010.After the end of city funding for the parade, the Mummers created the "Save the Mummers Fund" to help cover the additional city fees to paying expenses for police and sanitation services during the event.
Funding for the parade during the first decade of the 2000s was provided for several years by Southwest Airlines, which also took naming rights of the parade, which was called "Southwest Airlines Mummers Parade." Funding for the 2012 parade was provided by SugarHouse Casino, which renamed the parade to "Sugar House Mummers Parade."
In September 2009, The Bacon Brothers musical duo, composed of Philadelphia natives Michael and Kevin Bacon, recorded a special version of their song "New Year's Day" with members of the All-Star String Band. Proceeds from the sale of the CD went to the Save the Mummers Fund. Additionally, the duo performed a benefit concert for the parade in December 2009.
Location, time, and route
The parade traveled northward on Broad Street in Philadelphia for decades until the 1995 parade when the parade was moved to Market Street due to construction work on Broad Street at the Avenue of the Arts between Washington Avenue and Philadelphia City Hall. After construction was completed, the parade returned to Broad Street from 1996 to 1999. For various reasons, the parade was moved again to Market Street in 2000. In 2004, the parade was moved back to Broad Street temporarily. In 1997, the Fancy Brigades were moved to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, allowing for larger sets, but limiting audience size. In 2011, the Fancy Brigades returned to the parade temporarily.Each year, thousands of people participate in the parade, many wearing elaborate costumes costing tens of thousands of dollars to make and weighing well over 100 pounds. At one time up to $395,000 in prizes was awarded to the various winners. But as of 2010, there are no longer any monetary awards for the performers. The costs for making the outfits plus fees to choreographers and prop designers often far exceed the prizes available. While club fund-raisers, hall rentals, and bank loans often cover much of the expense, individual members frequently spend hundreds or thousands of dollars of their own money. To raise funds, many string bands and their members seek paying gigs, particularly in area Fourth of July parades, the annual "Show of Shows" formerly held in Atlantic City each winter, weddings, and other events. Many clubs hold "beef and beers" or 50/50 raffles. Most charge annual dues for membership.
As of 2008, the parade began at 9:00 am and ended sometime before 8:00 pm. Fancy brigades performed at the nearby convention center at noon, and in a second, judged show at 5:00 pm. An individual Mummers' struta weaving, comical dance/walk with pumping arms held out to the sidemay last two or three hours from South Philadelphia to City Hall. The whole parade, at close to eleven hours, may have been the longest parade in the U.S. Due to budget cuts, the 2009 parade was shorter, scheduled to begin at 10:00 am and last six and a half hours.
Incidents of foul weather have delayed the parade on occasions by several hours, including 2008.
On January 1, 2015, the Mummers began their parade route at Philadelphia's City Hall and headed south along Broad Street to Washington Avenue. The Mummers used the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as a staging area prior to moving to City Hall to be judged. After the judging, the mummers joined the parade heading south on Broad St. The parade ended at Washington Ave, with some clubs still heading east to Second Street for the unofficial "Two Street Parade".
If an all-day postponement is required for foul weather, the parade is usually held the following Saturday, as the expensive and fancy costumes are easily harmed by precipitation or high winds.
Each year, there is a festival leading up to the parade called MummersFest. It allows fans to tour the Pennsylvania Convention Center to watch the Fancy Brigades build their props and practice for their New Year's Day reveal.