hi folks,

so I'm not originally from philadelphia. my husband and i moved to south philly in october, and i love our home and our neighborhood and everything about it. but i've been wondering ever since if someone could explain this to me.

what's a mummer? i mean, of course i see them on tv and i see the guys practicing in the street and under overpasses and i get that it's a philly thing. but how does one become a mummer? what's with the naming of the mummer groups?

another thing i find fascinating is the fact that these are burly, manly men dressing up in crazy costumes and wearing wigs and maybe makeup, and dancing in public. and taking great pride in it.

i ask these questions with the utmost respect. i love that it's such a part of philadelphia.

thanks!

I am a mummer.

Mummers are broken up into four different categories. The first are the Comics. The original Mummers, Comics are the crossdressers. The silken gowns and golden slippers they wear dates back to the 19th century. Noted for their drunkeness, Comics tend to be the most rowdy of the 4 divisions. To become a comic is fairly easy. Most clubs hold open houses to buy a suit and march with them on New Year's Day. The suits run about $250 to $400 depending on the band.

Fancies are the pretty Mummers. They are the division with big, specialized costumes. The costumes not only have to fit the band's theme but also have to be styled in such a way as to fit the different Fancy categories. The Fancies are the least known Mummers but they are very traditional and are great guys. Full time membership in the 3 remaining Fancy(aka Mother clubs) clubs is not hard to come by. I am not entirely sure but I believe that some suits are open for sale and if not you can always volunteer to marshal(explained later).

The Fancy Brigades are the 3rd group. Formerly a part of the Fancies, the Brigades put together a theme with taped music and large rollaway floats. Because of their enormous size, the Brigades perform in the Convention Center. The Brigades have in essence turned into dance troups who do a 4 minutes routine to techno music. It gets a little repetitive after awhile. If you wish to marshal most bands would love you. To be a costumed member is excessively expensive. It can cost up to 4k to be a Brigader.

The fourth and most popular Mummers are the string bands. We are the "year round" Mummers as we rehearse all year and play concerts and parades all over the world. We put together a four and one half minute presentation of music, costume, props and drill. We are comprised of 48 to 64 musicians and countless marshals. Marshals for all the divisions are the offensive lineman of Mummery. A string band marshal builds the props and like theatre stage hands moves the props to their proper place during the drill. We ensure that every single facet of the band runs properly. I am a marshal and I can tell you that it is a very difficult job that all of us take pride in. To be a musician in a string band depends on whether you play an applicable instrument and the quality of your playing. Nearly every band has a music test. The best bands have over their limit of musicians--so just because you are a member does not ensure you will get a suit on New Year's Day. Dues are usually very low. You earn your suit by playing in the concerts and parade we have throughout the year.

The 18 string bands and how they got their names:

Fralinger: Named after founder John J. Fralinger

Quaker City: Nickname for Philadelphia

Ferko: Named after founder(and former Fralinger captain) Joesph Ferko. Commonly referred to as Joe's Boys.

Avalon(MY BAND): Strangely enough, Avalon was named for a cigarette that was beloved by the band members in the 1950's.

Woodland: Now in South Philly, they were founded on Woodland Avenue.

Greater Kensington: Named for location.

South Philadelphia: Named for location.

Greater Overbrook: Now in South Philly, name for location.

Broomall: Named after family owners. Only one year has the Broomall captain not been someone named Broomall.

Duffy: Named for former member.

Durning: Named for former member.

Hegeman: Named for former member.

Polish-American: Named for the large Polish population of the members. Band charter dictates that the captain has to have a Polish sirname.

Irish-American: Named for the Irish neighborhood they were founded in.

Aqua: Founded during prohibition, it was a shot at non-drinkers.

Uptown: The first band to move north of Market Street...thus, Uptown.

Trilby: The first string band, they are named after the young girl Svengali seduces.

Browne Street: Not entirely sure but I believe they are named after a street in New Orlenes. First year band that no one knows if they are actually marching or not.

On Tuesday nights, the string bands play a concert at the Mummers' Museum at 2nd and Washington. It starts at 8. Bring lawn chairs and the bevy of your choice. Bathrooms and small food items are for sale there.

Any more questions please ask and I will gladly give more specifics to them.

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wow, great question.Thanks Chief for the information. I really enjoyed reading it.

thanks so much for the info! from an outsider's perspective it's all very elusive and mysterious. then again, i'm a conspiracy theorist.

really, thank you so much for those answers. it's fun to learn from people who actually know what they're talking about.

what about how it started? the idea of a group of men deciding one day to put on costumes and dance and perform - and then have many more groups branch off from there - is again something that i'm curious about.

and am i right? it's a philly thing, right? or are there mummers elsewhere, too?

The actual origin of the name Mummers is very much in dispute. Most of us hold the belief that the word comes from the former Egpytian King Momus. He liked to party. There are other fables about how the name came about.

It was very common for Irish and Polish immigrants to shoot off their guns at midnight. On New Year's Day these same men, some in drag, would go door to door singing ditties. In return they would receive a cup of soup and a shot of whiskey. These men, called Shooters, were the forerunners of today's Mummers. On the Sunday before New Year's, it is common for the bands to march down Two Street. They stop at every clubhouse and play music. Many of us still have a large pot of Pepper Pot soup to greet them with.

Mummers are distinctly Philadelphians. Two string bands are located in New Jersey, one in Bucks County, and a couple of Comic clubs are from outside the city limits.

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Chief, thanks for the detailed answers. Very interesting stuff. What was the verdict on next year's parade? Will it still be Jan. 1st or did they move it because of the Eagles game?

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The city has told us they have no intention of moving us off the street on New Year's Day. This Live 8 concert will be the city's practice session for New Year's Day.

They may try and tweak the starting time to get us north of Washington Avenue by 3 PM. The Comics usually feel the brunt of this since they are first in the line of march. They will beetch about going up early but in the end they will play ball if the alternative is moving off January 1st.

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Thanks for this thread, as stated previously on another thread, we are thinking of buying on 2nd st...and have been very curious about the mummers. I've looked it up on the web, but was still a bit confused. The one other question we have is when you say they earn their costumes by playing in concerts, etc, how are these things financed? Especially when you say you travel all over to play, do you folks do charitable type concerts for kids or old folks? Just wondering, because obviously that wouldn't pay anything--if you have a link that you could direct me to, I can enlighten my family a bit further.

How much time do most mummers put into this, say every week/month?

Who makes the costumes, or do you order from costume houses? (my daughter is into costume design, that is her question)

Are the flags of mummer clubs/groups that are on 2nd street, on houses or on clubs? or both? We actually have lots more questions, but they can wait...

We earn money through contracted concerts and parades. The members are charged dues and some have to sell tickets but in string bands those charges are usually minimal. The bulk of our money is made in playing jobs.

We do many charitable concerts. During the holidays, all the string bands take 4 or 5 man bands to play for children and seniors in hospitals throughout the area. In 2005, 2 concerts were played to benefit the Tsunami and Katrina victims. The Tuesday Night string band concerts that are played during the summer are done to help raise money for the Mummer's Museum.

In a string band, you are expected to make a weekly rehearsal and many jobs throughout the year. After Labor Day, you are expected to drill every Sunday.

Those flags are traditionally of the brigades. The Jokers and Shooting Stars having the most.

All string bands hire a costumer to do their suits.

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I know there's a tradition of mummers in Ireland that has to do with Christmas, but they seem from what little I know to bear more resemblance to the kind of thing you see in rural Louisiana -- the Courir de Mardi Gras, which is extremely different from New Orleans Mardi Gras, and probably more truly traditional -- the Cajuns dress up in much simpler costumes with interesting wire masks and ride on horseback and go house to house harrassing people for ingredients to a gumbo all day and then ride back into town and the end of the day for a big party (yes I have seen this and, yes, I have seen men riding standing up drunk on horseback waving chickens by their feet in the air while shouting on the ride back in. And, yes, I have eaten the resulting gumbo while standing next to a cage of chickens who haven't been killed yet. And yes i felt a bit bad for the chickens . . . but the gumbo was also good, as was the beer and the music).

The Philadelphia Mummers look to me like a kind of cross between the floats of the traditional Mardi Gras krewes in N.O., Mobile, etc., that are mainly upper class and were once all-white and the Mardi Gras Indian tradition that takes place in the black neighborhoods. They're much more like a predominantly white version of the black Mardi Gras Indians. Look up the Mardi Gras Indians and you'll see a similarity in their costumes. And they do gigs all year, too, and tend to be tied to neighborhoods, etc.

I haven't been to a Mummers parade yet, but I hope to someday. I love seeing it on TV. It doesn't make up for missing Mardi Gras, but it helps a little.