Mummering
Dressing Up Mummers or Jannies
By Sharon Chubbs-Ransom
Call
it whatever you will, it is a tradition that has been around a long
time!
Because of our English and
Mummering
is “the dressing up in disguise or costume” during Christmas. Mummers
started
on St. Stephen’s Day other wise known as Boxing Day or December 26th
and carried on throughout the 12 days of Christmas to “Old Christmas”
night. In
by gone days it was entertainment that everyone looked forward to. For
children
it could be a little scary. Though even young children looked
forward to
the day when they would be considered old enough to “dress up mummers”
too.
Mummering
is also referred to as “Jannying” by some
“old
timers”. In La Tabatiere it was
called
“dressing up mummers” and “getting a rig”. “Dressing up” and
“rig” just
meant finding a suitable costume. Rigs went from the elaborate to the
simple.
Some people stuffed themselves into bullet proof long johns with lots
of bumps
and lumps, pulled stockings up their legs, used odd gloves, mitts,
socks and
odd strange looking hats and scarves. Men put on their wives dresses
over many
other layers. Grotesque animal heads and faces that might scare even an
adult
let alone a child. Sometimes a bed sheet would be tacked around a
“Carnation
milk case”. The person then drew a face on the milk case with eye holes
on the
outside world. He stepped inside, closed the opening by holding it
together and
his lack of form, muscles, and curves, disguised
who
he or she was. You were only limited by your imagination. Some people
were more
creative then others. The idea was to conceal your identity. Many of
the
homemade “mask” or facial covers were flour bags, sugar sacks, brin bags or cardboard boxes with eyeholes cut
appropriately. There were lots of Robin Hood flour bags used; today it
would be
seen as good advertising.
Then
there was the “hobby horse”. This contraption had the homemade
head of a
horse made from a junk of firewood. It had a hinged jaw, with nail
teeth, that
could be moved. Attached around would be a sail or some material cover
that up
to three people might be under. With hobbyhorses some people were known
to park
their hobbyhorse over a cellar hatch where they knew the owner of the
house
might keep his rum keg!
When
mummers arrived at a house they knocked on the door with a split (piece
of
kindling). This too was unusual because in a community where everyone
knew each
other no one knocked. When the door was opened the mummers asked in a
loud
voice “if mummers were llowed”. The
mummer’s voice or
talk was achieved by sucking the air to the back of the throat or voice
box,
holding your breath, and then in a loud nasal throaty cry or talk,
speaking,
“Good night etc”. Some people were very good at this while others
preferred to
use gestures and signs or remain mute. When you were allowed inside
there was a
place to sit or crouch and then the fun for the whole household was
trying to
guess whom each mummer was. Only when your name was guessed correctly
were you
committed to remove “take up” your mask. Then the sack or cloth
covering the
face would be flipped back over the head. If you were using the milk
case rig,
you piled the sheet or blanket into the case and stuck it underneath
your arm
until you got to the next house. Sometimes the mummers had music, an
accordion
or a harmonica “mouth organ” skill or musical talent had little to do
with it.
Sometimes singing or recitation of “old songs or poems” were sung or
read.
These songs or recitations were mostly of local composition and content
or had
been specifically composed for the occasion.
At
each house after the mummers were “guessed” and “unmasked” there
usually was a
treat, homemade candy, Christmas cake or cookies, a drink of some kind
etc. Sometimes with adults the drinks got strong and at the end
of an
evening of mummering some people were not
in good
shape and probably in worst shape the next day! All part of the fun!
For
the most part this tradition and custom was fun and
entertainment. But,
like everything sometimes it got out of hand and old grudges and nasty
things
were resurrected during mummering.
In fact in
Years
ago Aunt Clara Wellman and Aunt Laura Griffin loved to “Mummer Up” and
had
great fun doing it! In more recent years Betty Rowsell
kept the tradition alive. Today people like Georgina Ransom, “Mummer
Up” every
year; they refuse to let the tradition die out. Lots of times the
fun is
in the personality of the person who gets “Mummered
Up”!
Mummering
began to die out on the Coast when people began putting in carpets.
People
didn’t want Mummers tramping in with wet snowy boots over their good
carpets. One time the kitchen was the center of entertainment and
that is
always where mummers went. A bit of water on the floor could be wiped
up after
without ill effect. The next day the question was, “did you go all
around” or “how
far did you get?” It was a time when young and old looked forward
to this
entertainment and fun.
By
the way this takes place on the mainland of
Picture 1: click here / cliquez ici
Picture 2: click here /
cliquez ici
Entered on the Web: 13 March 2005
Updated: 21 April 2005
