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The Mummers Parade is held each New Year's Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Local clubs (usually called "New Years Associations") compete in one of four categories (Comics, Fancies, String Bands and Fancy Brigades). They prepare elaborate costumes and moveable scenery, which take months to complete. This is done in clubhouses located on or near 2nd Street, which also serve as social gathering places for members. Because of the proximity of such a large number of clubhouses, 2nd Street often serves as an after-the-parade party location, where clubs often march in a sort of unofficial parade. Local residents, and people who have gone to Philadelphia to watch the parade, often revel while watching, and sometimes joining, this unofficial parade/celebration.
Each year, about 15,000 people participate in the parade. Close to $400,000 in prizes are awarded, a small fraction of the cost of sequined, ostrich-plumed costumes, which can run several thousand dollars each.
The first official Mummers Parade was on January 1, 1901. Prior to that, local lore holds that many traditions — the dressing ("mumming") from England, Sweden and other countries — came on New Year's Day when at midnight, the citizens shot off guns to welcome the new year, a tradition that local law enforcement frowns upon. The next day, residents usually went door-to-door shouting out the following rhyme:
- Here we stand at your door,
- As we did 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 hot bowl of pepper pot! (A Philadelphia soup)
The parade is related to the Mummers Play tradition from the UK.
Location and Route
The Mummers Parade travelled northward up Broad Street in Philadelphia for many years until the late 1990s when the parade was moved to Market Street due to work on Broad Street. However, Mayor John F. Street elected to keep the parade going down Market Street, which severely limited the size and spectacle of the string band sets and acts. It was also at this same time that the Fancy Brigades were moved to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which severely limited the amount of people that could go and see them live; however, it allowed them to create huge sets and dazzling performances.
After years of complaints, Mayor John Street moved the parade back to Broad Street for the 2004 parade.
External links
"Mummers Parade"