Sussex Mummer's Play - Ditchling Mummers

If Asbos had been around in the Fourteenth Century the early Mummers would probably have clocked up a few between them. Referring to the practice of wearing masks (from the Greek 'mommo'), Mummers were the Hoodies of their day. They wrought havoc in the streets by engaging in 'night-revelry' and street crime until many towns outlawed the practice altogether. It was from such unlawful beginnings that the tradition of the Mummers’ plays first emerged, initially as a form of busking. Groups of Mummers (often made up of farm labourers or travellers) would perform at the houses of the more wealthy over the Christmas period in exchange for food and money to supplement income at a time when there was little work available.

This year the practice is being kept alive by the Ditchling Mummers in aid of St Patrick's Homeless Shelter. The form of the play will retain many of its original elements, including the central enactment of a battle. This is traditionally between St George and the dragon, although it was often replaced with King George and a contemporary enemy. Pantomime-like, the fight begins with a mutual boasting of martial prowess and ends with the resurrection of the victim at the hands of a quack doctor, followed by an appeal for money. Theories abound as to the origin of the plot. One is that it echoes the pagan ritual of death and rebirth of nature during winter, where a fertility god is symbolically killed in his old age in order to be reborn in the spring. ER