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The Mummers Parade is held each New Year's Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is believed to be the oldest folk festival in the United States.〔Todt, Ron (January 1, 2012). ("Mummers Strut Down Broad Street in Annual Parade" ). WCAU-TV. Retrieved January 3, 2012.〕 Local clubs (usually called "New Years Associations") compete in one of four categories (comics, fancies, string bands, and fancy brigades). They prepare elaborate costumes and moveable scenery, which take months to complete. This is done in clubhousesmany of which are on or near 2nd Street (called "Two Street" by some local residents) in the Pennsport neighborhood of the city's South Philadelphia sectionwhich also serve as social gathering places for members. Numerous Irish and Italian immigrants once populated South Philadelphia, forming the Mummers and parade goers. As these groups have begun to be replaced by Asian and Hispanic immigrants, local ties to the parade have weakened.〔Hepp, Chris (August 7, 2014). ("Mummers Parade going south? City mulls big change" ). Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved February 2, 2015.〕 The parade has been broadcast since 1993 on WPHL-TV,〔("SugarHouse Announces Presenting Sponsorship of 2012 Mummers Parade and Fancy Brigade Finale," Business Wire, Friday, November 18, 2011. )〕 which has live streamed the event on its website since 2011. After a national campaign to get the parade nationally televised,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=National TV Campaign Website )〕 an edited two-hour broadcast of the parade was picked up by WGN America and WGN-TV; the broadcast debuted January 3, 2009. ==History== The parade traces back to mid-17th-century roots, blending elements from Swedish, Finnish, Irish, English, German, and other European heritages, as well as African heritage.〔("Mummers Parade History" ). Philadelphia Department of Recreation. Retrieved November 27, 2007.〕 The parade is related to the Mummers Play tradition from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Revivals of this tradition are still celebrated annually in South Gloucestershire, England on Boxing Day and in parts of Ireland on St. Stephen's Day and also in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador around Christmas. Swedes and Finns, the first European colonists in the Philadelphia area, brought the custom of visiting neighbors on "Second Day Christmas" (December 26) with them to Tinicum. This was soon extended through New Year's Day with costumed celebrants loudly parading through the city.〔〔("The Philadelphia Tradition" ). Philadelphia Mummers Association. Retrieved November 27, 2007.〕 They appointed a "speech director", who performed a special dance with a traditional rhyme: The Mummers derive their name from the Mummers' plays performed in Philadelphia in the 18th century as part of a wide variety of working class street celebrations around Christmas. By the early 19th century, these coalesced with earlier Swedish customs, including the Christmas neighbor visits and possibly shooting firearms on New Year's Day (although this was common in other countries as well) as well as the Pennsylvania German custom of "belsnickling," where adults in disguise questioned children about their behavior during the previous year. U.S. President George Washington carried on the official custom of New Year's Day calls during the seven years he occupied President's House in Philadelphia. The Mummers continued their traditions of comic verse in exchange for cakes and ale. Small groups of up to twenty mummers, their faces blackened, went door to door, shooting and shouting, and adapting the English Mummer's play by replacing the character of "King George" with that of "General Washington."〔 Through the 19th century, large groups of disguised (often in blackface) working class young men roamed the streets on New Year's Day, organizing "riotous" processions, firing weapons into the air, and demanding free drinks in taverns, and generally challenging middle and upper-class notions of order and decorum.〔 An 1808 law decreed that "masquerades" and "masquerade halls" were "common nuisances" and that anyone participating would be subject to a fine and imprisonment. It was apparently never successfully enforced and was repealed in 1859.〔〔Marion, John Francis (January 1981). ''Smithsonian''.〕〔("On New Year's Day in Philadelphia, Mummer's the Word" ). rivefrontmummers.com. Archived version retrieved January 4, 2008.〕Henry Muhlenberg, writing in 1839, reported, "Men met on the roads in Tinicum and Kingsessing, who were disguised as clowns, shouting at the top of their voices and shooting guns.〔()〕 Unable to suppress the custom, by the 1880s the city government began to pursue a policy of co-option, requiring participants to join organized groups with designated leaders who had to apply for permits and were responsible for their groups actions. The earliest documented club, the Chain Gang, had formed in 1840 and Golden Crown first marched in 1876 with cross-town rivals Silver Crown forming soon after. By 1881, a local report said "Parties of paraders" made the street "almost like a masked Ball."〔 By 1900, these groups formed part of an organized, city-sanctioned parade with cash prizes for the best performances.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mummers Parade」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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