The Mumming Tradition on the Folklife Today Podcast
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Hear about the tradition of mumming, or traveling your local area performing a brief play during the winter holidays. In this episode of the American Folklife Center’s podcast, Rheagan Martin of the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled interviews Folklife Specialists Stephen Winick and Jennifer Cutting about the connections of the mumming tradition to the American Folklife Center. Mumming is a folk drama tradition in which groups of performers go house to house singing and performing a play. Jennifer describes the James Madison Carpenter Collection, which contains play scripts, recordings, photos, and drawings related to mumming. Stephen explains how the mumming tradition was brought the Library of Congress. Both talk about the connections of mumming to the solstice and to other wintertime traditions.
Posted in: christmas, Folk Drama, Holidays, Mumming, Podcasts