Thursday January 1, 2004 [con't]
From there we drove to the home of The Sommers, friends of Mom and Dad. They weren't home, which was ok with me, since I was ready for home at that point.
We did have one more stop to make though, and that was at Great-Aunt Cis and Uncle Alec's. They were home, but they are hilarious, so it was nice to visit with them. We stayed for about an hour, then went on our way back to Freshwater.
The weather was terrible, and I was really irritable to begin with. It was the only time so far that I felt annoyed with anyone. I think we all wanted to kill each other, but somehow we all survived and got home in time for me to have a little nap before we (minus Aaron, who had plans with Stacey and Sean) went over to Danny and Lorna's for the New Year's Eve celebration.
Things got kicking right away, because when we walked through the door we were greeted by a band of "Mummers," also called "Jannies." Two had accordians and two or three had long staff with socked feet on the bottoms and jingling beer bottle caps stuck out on sticks up the length of them. They began singing and dancing while we fought out way through the hall and into the kitchen.
Mummering is an old tradition held over from long ago in Britain. During the week between Christmas and New Year's, pelple dressed yp in strange clothing to disguise themselves. Women dress as men and men as women, doing their best to hide who they are through the use of rubber boots, old housecoats, and any strange hats or other garb they can find.
A group of Mummers (or Jannies, depending on what town you're in) goes around to the homes of families and friends and knocks on doors, demanding entrance. Sond and dance ensue, and the people of the house gives out cakes or cookies, and drinks. Lots of drinks. They try to guess who each of the Mummers is. Only when they succeed do the Mummers have to remove their disguises.
Not too many people do it anymore, and, of course, the tradition has changed over time. It was actually made illegal sometime during the 1800's, after someone was killed by a disguised person acting as a Mummer. |
