Today's class was all about revitalizing traditions, using the Mummers Festival as a case study. We started the day with a talk on mummering (which some of the students had never heard of) and then we had a visit from Doretta Hollett of Burin, who came and shared her memories of Christmastime in Burin. Doretta even brought in a bottle of Purity Syrup, so everyone got to have a taste.
In the afternoon, I introduced people to the Newfoundland hobby horse, like the one above, one of the Mummers Troupe's horses, made in the early 1970s by Chris Brookes and company. And then it was time to put their new knowledge to use. Using the template from the Mummers Festival in St. John's, I walked everyone through the process of creating their own hobby horses. Here is a peek at how the workshop went, from start to finished ponies:
1 comment:
Oh my goodness,... years from now some folklorist will be wondering how mumming began on Vancouver Island... perhaps the traditions came with the horses on a Newfoundland trawler stuck here in Victoria over the Christmas season?
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