Mummers

Mummering is a Newfoundland and Labrador Christmas tradition where the mummers - people disguised- visit their friends' homes during the twelve days of Christmas from Christmas day to Jan 6th, old Christmas day. It turns out mummering was an old English tradition which Newfoundlanders have kept and made into its own.

Three dancing mummers

Newfoundland mummers always have their heads covered, and are often found wearing clothing in odd ways such as mitts on the feet and socks on the hands, boots on the wrong feet, underwear on top of clothing, clothing stuffed with material, and men as women, and women as men.

The mummers visits their friends unannounced in the small out port communities, or pre-alerted by a non-participating friend for the city dwellers. The friends then have to try and guess the identities of the disguised mummers. If the friends fail to correctly guess the identity of the mummer, they will have to reward the mummer with some Screech rum or Purity maple syrup if the mummer doesn't drink alcohol. Of course since it is Christmas time, and is a season of festivities, there is always a lot of singing and dancing and cake eating.

To see what mummering looks like, here is a song recorded in by Simani called the Mummer Song and later incorporated into the CBC Newfoundland and Labrador television series "The Land and Sea" in 1986. The Land and Sea episode with the Mummer Song is still aired by CBC every Christmas Day as part of the Christmas tradition in Newfoundland.