Loreena McKennitt - The Mummers' Dance

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𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒

𝗝𝗔𝗡𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝟭, 𝟭𝟵𝟴𝟱, 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗗
I have just read an account of a mumming troupe which boarded a Polish ship stranded in the harbour in St. John’s, Newfoundland, on New Year’s Eve, to entertain the sailors. According to James Frazer in his book “The Golden Bough”, mumming has its roots in the tree-worshipping of the peoples
who inhabited great regions of a forested Europe now long gone.

Mumming usually involves a group of performers dressing up in masks (sometimes of straw) and clothes bedecked with ribbons or rags, and setting out on a procession to neighbouring homes singing songs and carrying branches of greenery. It’s primarily associated with springtime and fertility, and it has a cast of stock characters, like the Fool, which recurs in some form or another from Morris dancing to the shadow puppet plays of Turkey and Greece and even the morality plays of the Middle Ages.

𝗠𝗔𝗬 𝟭, 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟳, 𝗣𝗔𝗗𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗪, 𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗡𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗟
As with many time-honoured events, Padstow’s May Day festivities begin the night before. It’s not surprising to find a celebration like this in one of the most historically Celtic corners of England; it begins with a ritual carol, sung a capella, rich with references to springtime and St. George



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