On Mumming and Olde English Yuletide Traditions

• Christmas has long been a time for reinventing the past. In the glow of a log fire imaginary or real, we feel our way back through the halls and passages of time to a great golden age. In the light of contemporary America, the days of Victorian England and America are one of our favorite golden ages. The Victorians themselves were engaged in the art of exploring and reinventing Christmas Past, as witnessed by the writings of Englishman Charles Dickens, and Americans Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore. By great imagination and elaboration on the traditions and past remnants they could discover, these writers were greatly instrumental in setting the notion of the Merry Olde English Christmas Past as we know it today.

What are some of the sights and sounds, traditions and characters that we can find in Victorian writings? Many of these survive as British Isles folk traditions even today.

Father Christmas: This Character originates in Merry Old Renaissance England. You can find Father Christmas wreathed in a crown of holly and never far from a groaning table of food and drink, for he is the very embodiment of mirth and festivity. During the 12 Days of Christmas, he is one of the main characters in the bands of mummers that go door-to-door enacting comical, ceremonial mummers' plays for gatherings of neighbors. The English Father Christmas functions more as the animating spirit of Christmas celebration, rather than as a giver of gifts, though he does often bring token treats for the young ones. Many English folks today can tell you of the pleasure of finding a single orange in their stocking or shoe. (See Dylan Thomas: A Child's Christmas in Wales.)

Mummers' Plays: Wherein village neighbors disguise themselves in costumes of rags, ribbon, and soot, enacting the story of St. George and the Dragon. The story is given in rhyme, and the sillier, the better. The cast of characters also includes Father Christmas, a hobby horse, a quack doctor, and a team of morris or sword dancers. It is said that the story's ceremonious battle, death (either of St George, the dragon, or both) and revival by the dancers is a mirror of the birth of the new year, and the sun's return after the winter solstice.

Wassailing: This is the custom of going door-to-door singing carols with a wooden wassail bowl, in hopes of gifts of food and drink. Each region in England had its own traditional "wassailing songs." These songs all had the same theme: to bid good health to neighbors, friends, "kin and kinsfolk," and all the cows, horses, dogs, and apple trees within the village bounds.… All the best for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!

John & Sondra play a glorious array of instruments favored in Victorian times:

Hammered Dulcimer: a large trapezoidal zither played with light wooden beaters. The dulcimer dates back to Persia in Biblical times, spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, and became a favorite for American barn dances.

Squeezebox: The original accordeon, with a keyboard of buttons instead of the more recently adopted piano keyboard. Unlike the piano accordian, the squeezebox is built to play in only 1 or 2 keys, for a very strong and direct musical expression. This was invented in England in the 1820's, further refined in Germany, and soon played throughout the world.

Whittle & Dub or Pipe and Tabor: a 3-holed recorder and drum combination, one for each hand, for a one-man village band. A favorite since the Middle Ages.

Hurdy Gurdy: A keyboard fiddle dating from a 10th century French monastery, later found throughout Europe as an instrument for street musicians.

Mandocello: A cello-sized mandolin used in mandolin orchestras of the late 1800's and early 1900's, invented in America.

Northumbrian Smallpipes: A bellows-blown bagpipes from the northern-most part of England, closely related to the Irish Uillean Pipes.

Crumhorns: Renaissance relatives of the oboe, having reeds that buzz freely under a cap, like a bagpipes without a bag, rediscovered in Victorian times by musical antiquarians.

Article Copyright 2000, John Bromka, for use in parallel with publicity for Bells & Motley presentations

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