Creevy Mummers, Co. Donegal, Ireland 1982
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- At a pub in Ballyshannon, County Donegal a group of mummers are embracing old customs and traditions.
The mumming tradition is alive and well with groups calling on homes during long winter nights. There are several varieties of the mumming tradition across Europe. In the Pennines district of England, the mummers or sweepers call on isolated homes, hum, clean the house, collect a donation and disappear.
Mummers confine their appearances to specific times of the year Christmas, All Souls, New Year and the first Monday after the twelfth day of Christmas.
The Creevy Mummers resurfaced in Ballyshannon four years ago and confine their gallivanting to the days between 8 and 31 December. One member of the group explains that mumming has its origins in pagan ritual. He says that the first reference to mummers in Ireland was in Cork in 1695. The tradition developed and took on local significance.
It signifies the passing of seasons.
One of the most popular forms of mumming entertainment was the staging of a hero combat play usually involving the killing of one or more adversaries by a self-proclaimed hero. In Ballyshannon, the hero is Saint George and his opponent is The Turkey Man.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 November 1982. The reporter is Tommie Gorman.
Now you have got me very worried about so many different Mummers all over Ireland, collecting money and disappearing into the night you said, that is very scary, and for this reason alone I will not allow any Mummers into my town, I do not want them taken my money then disappearing off into the night
Mummers emerged from the Germanic Saxon tradition of "Mumingen" introduced to England in 4AD following the conquest and colonization of England by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
400AD, surely
That it, I had enough of those invading Mummers, they are completely banned from entering into my part of the country and if they do sneak in then they will be stripped bare naked and send back to their home only wearing a worried smile
400 AD
I don't think that mummer guy knows the origins of mumming. It goes back to the middle ages, when nearly everyone was a peasant. It's actually English in origin. In those days, for the English in particular, the peasents were short of money in the depths of winter as it wasn't growing time or harvest time. The mummers went into the big houses of landlords with their play to earn some money to tie them over. The Irish subsequently took on this form of entertainment for the same ends. The wren the wren , the king of the birds etc etc was suggesting that the aristocracy would give money for a funeral for a bird quicker that giving money for food to a starving peasant, but at Christmas time it would be mean minded of the landowners to take offence when that song was sung in their house. The mummers play would have other little stabs at the overlords. These veiled grievances were definitely entertaining and a way of getting the rich to laugh at themselves but letting them know nonetheless, not to go too far.
The pagan roots mentioned by the mummer in this clip is just fanciful nonsense.
Thank you for this information now I know everything and my attitude towards all mummies have changed completely. , From this day forth, I'm banning all mummers from my town,
@@jamesbradshaw3389 😂
From the information I have received from many different places in Ireland now I know everything and my attitude towards all mummies has changed completely. I have had it will those Mummies, those men dressed up in women's clothing yet behaving like hard men the following day, I have had it with those Mummers, From this day forth, I'm banning all mummers from my town, they are not allowed to enter our territory ever again, St Stephens days was the day that a poor captured Wren was placed in a cleaned our jam jar and presented to each house in the local villages by young children, a rhyme about the Wren was recited, a little gift of money was given to the children and sometimes with a slice of the best Christmas cake and a glass of Bulmers Cidona, in the evening when all the children got back to their home, they counted their money and they release this beautiful little bird the wren back into the night
Creeps