Mummers' Parade

[Philip]

Two years ago some local people organised a mummers' parade on the model of those that were common here in St.John's 150 years ago.  Though they had not been part of the Christmas season for a long time, the new parades caught on and the third annual one was held a week ago.  It's mainly a younger generation that has picked it up.  Though the parade wasn't done for decades, even a century, mummering itself -- disguising and visiting neighbours -- has continued in the rural parts of Newfoundland and Labrador up to the present.  The types of disguise are like what you see in these pictures -- mainly there's no attempt at masquerade (dressing up AS someone or something), but rather it's almost all about disguise (hiding who you are).  Hobby horses are part of the tradition, so there were a few of them.

I've photographed the parade three years in a row. This year I brought my Balda CE35 and Yashica Electro 35 GSN. I shot five rolls of Kodak Pro Image 100 and Kodak Supra 800 (which had expired around 2001).  I also brought my Olympus E-P2 but I only took a half dozen pictures with it.  If the picture is sharper, it's probably from the Yashica (though that's not always true).

There were probably 300 mummers in the parade. This is a pretty random sample of the pctures I took. I've got more that I'll try to post later.

[br1078lum]

Next year, a marching band?  That's a great tradition to have revived, and wonderful captures of all the merriment, Philip.

PF

[Philip]

Marching bands? Nope -- they'd be overtaken by all the accordions.

[LarryD]

+1 ^

[melek]

I was thinking that I would be around for the Philadelphia Mummers Parade, but maybe not.

[torment]

Even more scary than Morris Dancers.  (should be smiley here)

[Philip]

Even more scary than Morris Dancers.  (should be smiley here)

[torment]

Thanks for providing the Smiley.  This is missing on my "reply" page.  Good pictures, by the way.  Did you develop them?

[Philip]

No -- I took these to a local WalMart lab.  Thanks -- it was one of those 4-stops-down-from-sunny days so many are fuzzier than I'd like. But I think they capture the fun of the day.  (They do for me!)

By the way, you can make a smiley face in the old-fashioned way (if we can say "old-fashioned" about those things): just type a colon : followed immediately by a close-parenthesis ) mark.  That will convert on Nelsonfoto into the yellowy green face.

.

[BillyBob]

Looks like good, wholesome, fun Philip.

And that is *classic* east coast architecture; could be in just about any maritime city.