Amid COVID-19 pandemic and rain delays, Mummers strut in Philly

Costumed revelers strutted and danced down Philadelphia’s still-wet main Market and Broad streets to the tunes of string bands or pop songs.

• The Associated Press
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  The Associated Press (AP) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.

(Philadelphia) — Philadelphia’s Mummers strutted down the city’s Broad Street on Sunday following a one-day weather-related delay and a year after COVID-19 restrictions prompted the cancellation of the famous and sometimes inflammatory event.

Costumed revelers strutted and danced down Philadelphia’s still-wet main Market and Broad streets to the tunes of string bands or pop songs in unusually mild temperatures and under grey skies that threatened to make the umbrellas carried by many participants of more than ceremonial use.

“This is so much fun — I had no idea,” said Elizabeth Baker, 37, watching across the street from City Hall with 17-year-old Riley Hayes, who was visiting from Alabama. “I moved here in 2019, I didn’t go in 2020 and then last year they didn’t have it, so I was like ‘I gotta go this year!’”

The celebration viewed by thousands each year also features comic brigades, elaborate floats and plenty of feathers and sequins. It has also attracted persistent criticism and at one point a threat from the mayor to end the event after repeated blackface displays or other behavior deemed offensive. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that troupes have been required to undergo racial bias and cultural sensitivity training since 2020.

Last year’s pandemic-related cancellation was only the second in the more than 119-year history of the event as all large parades and events were prohibited for most of 2020. Some Mummers held a protest gathering in their South Philly stomping grounds last year in protest of the decision.

City officials declined to cancel the outdoor event this year despite growing numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations but required all along the parade route to wear masks and asked anyone feeling sick to stay home and watch live television coverage instead. This year’s rain delay led to the parade following Saturday night’s indoor events, including performances at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which usually cap the celebration.

The Mummers Parade, believed to be the nation’s oldest folk festival, stems from a mixture of immigrant traditions, some dating back of the 1640s, dubbed “mummer,” likely from the German word for “mask.”

It mixes the immigrant traditions of the Scandinavians who welcomed the new year with gunfire, the English and Welsh who entertained with masquerade plays, and the Germans credited with introducing Santa Claus to their new surroundings. Black residents arriving after the Civil War added the signature strut along with “Oh! Dem Golden Slippers,” the parade’s theme song. The parade became an official city-sponsored event in 1901.

The traditional spectacle now includes competition in four divisions: comics, the satirists; Fancies, with the flashiest outfits; Fancy Brigades, with choreographed theatrical works; and String Bands, the dancing musicians, with their traditional theme “Oh! Dem Golden Slippers.”