Mummers
Mumming is a Christmas sport where men and women change clothes, dress as each other, and go visiting neighbors. Cross-dressing was condemned by the Quinisext Council in Constantinople held in 690 because it was deemed a remnant of Saturnalia and paganism. People also dressed as rams, and steers and took to the streets for revelry.
"Bounce, buckram, velvet's dear
Christmas comes but once a year
and when it comes it brings good cheer
but when it's gone, it's never near."
A nursery rhyme that alludes to bouncers, or mummers, choosing buckram for costumes because velvet is too expensive. Shakespeare may have had these Christmas fools in mind when he attired Falstaff in buckram.
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The tradition of mumming continued into the 19th and early 20th century with The Mari Lwyd, the Gray Mare, is a Welsh midwinter tradition. It is a luck-bringing ritual in which the participants accompany a person disguised as a horse, complete with horse skull, from house to house and sing at each door in exchange for food and money.
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