| TOP STORIES |  | | | | | | | FEATURES | | | | | | MAYOR NEWS | | | | BIZARRE LONDON | | | TRAVEL | | | | COMPETITIONS | | |
|
|
|
Mummers Ensure Pagan Traditions Are Remembered
The Tonbridge Mummers outside TheRose and Crown Hotel, Tonbridge, on Boxing Day in 1989
AMID the gluttony, drunkenness and general debauchery that is Christmas,the season is possibly not the best time to reflect on the mish-mash oftraditions that make up our modern festival.
In particular, customs that used to be integral parts of pastChristmases are soon overlooked and forgotten.
However in a peaceful corner of the north Kent countryside, a traditionis clinging on that can be traced back to pagan times.
Small bands of men, dressed up in scraps of paper and with blackenedfaces, burst into pubs and act out a short drama, before collecting pinmoney and leaving, as suddenly as they arrive.
The themes of the plays are always the same.
Father Christmas introduces two combatants, generally King George and theTurkish Knight, who fight a battle. Upon the Turkish Knight's beinghit and fatally wounded, a quack doctor arrives and miraculously restoresthe knight to life.
A man dressed as a woman then enters and says: `My family is largeand I am small, So every little bit helps us all.'
This tradition of Mummers plays, the name of which is probably related tothe Elizabethan word for acting and charades - "mummery" -was formerly strong in the Darent Valley area of north Kent.
Each band of players, known as Christmas Champions, was fiercelyterritorial and kept to the same village. Four teams operated in theDarent Valley, from Brasted, Riverhead, Shoreham and Sutton-at-Hone.
So why, despite having little superficially to do with the Christmastradition, have these plays clung on as part of the seasonal celebrations?
The answer lies in the reasons which marked out late December as a timefor celebration.
Peasants, struggling to survive the harsh winter, noted the passing ofthe year's shortest day, December 21, and could look forward tolonger days and milder weather.
Comparing winter and spring to death and resurrection, the Mummers playunderlines the general theme of the late December celebration: namely, theend of winter and the coming of spring.
Traditions are born of necessity, as happened in pagan times when hollyand mistletoe were used to decorate homes as part of midwinterfestivities.
Lacking the colourful flowers which brightened up homes during spring andsummer festivals, peasants turned to those evergreen plants which werereadily available.
Today's winter festivities, despite having a cursorily observedChristian theme, is altogether a less spiritual affair.
Now, all we seem to do is feast, drink and get merry. Nice to think howtraditionally society has been able to cling on to the vital customs anddisregard the rest!
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
9:30am Saturday 2nd January 1999
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
