I can't stand the Philadelphia Mummers Parade. Every New Years, the people of southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware are subject to 9 hours of coverage of sexually ambiguous cross dressing and public drunkeness. In my disdain for the event, I began to research the origins of real mummery and found, of all things, cross dressing. Why?
It was simple really. Mummery was originally an English tradition of court entertainment on feast days. The actors would dress in gaudy outfits and reenact historical or mythological events in Anglo-Saxon or Gaelic culture. For example, there was almost always a St. George that would serve as both central actor and narrator. This usually meant that there was a dragon too. No word on who played the dragon.
The thing about the rules of the stage in those days were exactly as the rules of operatic performance. Women were not permitted to be actors or singers. As such, men would have to take the part of women, although mercifully castration was not necessary as it was in opera. As such, there was nothing sexual about this cross dressing, as it was in the name of drama.
Fast forward to the New World, where the mummer tradition had taken more of a lay person role. Part of a 12 Days of Christmas celebration would be a mummer party usually hosted on the 12th night (on or about 17 January by the Julian Calendar). People would dress in gaudy outfits and meet at the house of a friend, who would attempt to guess the identity of each of the guests of the party. As such, deception was highly valued, and dressing as the oposite gender was an effective method of hiding one's identity. Women were now involved, and they would frequently dress as men. Once again, nothing sexual.
It appeared that my intended argument had fallen flat. Cross dressing was indeed a part of the mummer legacy, and there was indeed nothing sexual or impure about it. Granted, I still can't stand the Mummer's Parade, and think it is a silly tradition, but it is more faithful to it's roots than I gave it credit for.
For more reading.
The official Mummers Parade website:
http://www.phillymummers.com/
An overview of the history of mummering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Play