1944 Philadelphia New Year Parade Original Official Program Mummers King Momus: Mummery

1944 Original 1944 Philadelphia New Year"s Day Parade Original Official Program by Philadelphia New Year Shooters and Mummers Association January 1, 1944 King Momus

Condition: Fine, 8.8 x 11.6 tall with 44 pages and cover,

44 Photos, articles, Advertisements etc Descriptions of Fancy Division, Champions of the past, Comic Division, String Band Division, Forward, Shooters Clubs, Gallagher New Year Association, Parade Program (starts at 8:30 AM) 1944 Video of this Parade The tradition of Philadelphia Mummery started in the late 17th century as a continuation of the Old World customs of ushering in the New Year. Mummery in America is as unique to Philadelphia as Mardi Gras is to New Orleans. For example, the Swedes were Philadelphia s first settlers. When they came to Tinicum, just outside of Philadelphia, they brought their custom of visiting friends on Second Day Christmas, December 26. Later they extended their period of celebration to include New Year s Day, and welcomed the New Year with masquerades and parades of noisy revelers. Most people carried firearms for protection in those early days of the [colony], and it did not take long before pistols and muskets joined with bells and noisemakers to create the sound of a New Year. Those who shot in the New Year became New Year s Shooters, and thus the name much later evolved to officially become the New Year s Shooters and Mummers Association. Groups would travel from house to house, sing songs, and perform dances -- all to be rewarded with food and drink.