Mumming (redirected from Mummers Play)

Mumming 

the act of disguising oneself in a special costume, which is sometimes fantastic, and wearing a mask.

The custom of mumming can be traced back to the era of the primitive communal system. The most ancient depictions of mummers in wild-animal masks, hides, and horns date from the Upper Paleolithic period. Methods of disguising oneself while hunting apparently influenced the rites of sorcerous, or magical, mumming, which was associated with totemism. Underlying this custom was the notion that by likening oneself to a worshiped animal or an image of a religious fantasy, a man was transformed into a supernatural being and could influence nature and animals.

During the period of the disintegration of the primitive communal system and the establishment of a class society, mumming was used in the rites of secret societies in, for example, Melanesia and West Africa, and in shamanism to instill fear. In ancestor worship mumming was included in funeral ceremonies; among the ancient Romans, as well as among many of the peoples of America, Africa, and Asia, a person dressed as the deceased took part in funerals. Mumming was widely practiced in the rites of the calendar cycle among all farming peoples, including the ancient Slavs, for whom it was linked with the holidays celebrating the winter solstice and vernal equinox.

In Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries, mumming by skomorokhi often expressed the spontaneous protest of the people against the oppression of the ruling classes by ridiculing the boyars and clergy. Consequently, Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich issued a ukase in 1648 forbidding the skomorokhi to jest and use masks.

Mumming has been preserved as part of the festivals of many peoples of Asia, Africa, and America; in Western Europe it has long been an indispensable part of carnivals.