By Caleb Rogers

Hampshire has a long history as a county, stretching back to when it was first recorded as Hamtunscīr in 755, making it one of the earliest Saxon Shires. For every year since  755, Hampshire has celebrated some form of winter festival, which started as the pagan Midwinter, but developed into Christmas after the arrival of Christianity. 

These winter holidays evolved their own unique set of festivities, such as carolling and gift giving. The most interesting of these traditions is probably the Christmas Mummings, a medieval custom that has persisted until this very day. A mumming is essentially a play, though I would define it more as a folk opera, due to the incorporation of music and dance into the performance. 

Originally, the mummers were groups of all-male locals who would go from house to house performing their play. If you don't like carollers, then you would probably have hated being a peasant in medieval Hampshire. No matter where you looked you'd find a troupe putting on a mumming, from the lowliest peasant's hearth to the great halls of lords', providing entertainment in the same way hallmark provides us with terrible Christmas movies. The mummings were so terrible in fact, that in modern Britain they are all but extinct, largely replaced by the pantomime; Which likely evolved out of mummers allowing the audience to participate. 

Mummers in Longparish, Hampshire. Courtesy of the village of Longparish.

Hampshire however, ever a holdfast of folk traditions and out-of-date customs, continues to have mummings. Not only do they still survive, but many of the mummings have remained relatively unchanged throughout the years, giving us an exceptionally rare window into the past.

Today you can visit many places throughout the county, from Andover to Crookham, and see one of these plays. The most common story is one of a famous British folk hero, usually St George or King George, who must best three knights, usually from an area around the Holy Land. As time has gone on, a quack doctor and an old man (who is sometimes Father Christmas) appear to have also become incorporated. Given the age of the original story, it is likely this was a mythologised retelling of an actual event which happened during the Crusades, probably involving the Crusader King Richard I the Lionheart. At some point later on, perhaps during the reign of one of the Georgian Kings, the protagonist was replaced with a George, but the other elements, such as the Saracen Knights, were kept. 

However, this is now all at risk. The pandemic has put a damper on many theatre productions, mummings included. It seemed as if social distancing was going to wipe out the plays entirely, but there are two glimmers of hope. The first is that the mummings have been moved online. Now I'm going to be honest, the directing is hardly Scorsese or Tarantino quality and the acting is even worse - in fact most Youtube productions make them look terrible - but it's nice to see something so old finally go digital and be preserved for a modern audience. The second way the mummings might survive is if people go and see them. Which hopefully a few people can do this year, as long as No 10 don't decide to lock us all down and throw another Christmas shindig. 

In the spirit of the mummings, I thought I'd enclose a synopsis for one written in bardic prose. Which goes as follows: 

In rural Hampshire many moons ago,

Plays were performed in the season of snow,

Mummings did the peasants call these shows,

And they were acted out by troupes of beaus,

Of the great crusades and knights of old, 

Stories of honour and battle they told, 

To this here day you can still see a play

and watch King George; the saracens he slays

So go and watch before it is too late, 

The Christmas mummings this year shall be great

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