ARE you mumming this December?

You’re not? Have you never heard of mummers plays?

Mumming is one of the oldest features of Christmas in Britain and dates back more than 1,000 years.

Ok, let me put it another way – are you going to see a pantomime?

We take pantomimes and their conventions for granted.

The patter of ‘he’s behind you’ and ‘oh no she isn’t’ is embedded in the festive culture of these isles as much as Christmas pudding.

The roots of pantomime lie in mummers plays, along with harlequins and dames (male performers dressing up as females).

Mummers plays were seasonal folk performances. They were generally performed in the street or touring door to door. In time they became associated with December, the winter solstice and Christmas.

They were originally mime or ‘dumb’ shows and it is thought the name mummers derives from the Middle English word ‘mum’, meaning silent. It’s also where the phrase ‘keeping mum’ comes from.

There are a couple of other theories over the etymology. One school of thought attributes the word to the Greek ‘mommo’ meaning ‘mask’. Another suggests it is simply a lift of the Germanic ‘mummer’, which translates as ‘disguised person’.

In due course, mummers plays accentuated the comic aspects of life. The main characters were St George, Captain Slasher, the Turkish Knight, the King of Egypt, the Doctor and several men-at-arms who challenge St George to a duel but are slain.

The Doctor was a character brought on to bring the dead knights back to life. This is thought by many historians to represent the dying of the old year and spring resurrection.

Audiences would come to mummers plays expecting to see familiar conventions, such as recurring characters, fights and gender-role swapping.

The same can be said of pantomimes, including the wider range of stories such as Aladdin, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

The comedic conventions of pantomime influenced everything from circus clowns, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, right through to modern comics such as Rowan Atkinson and Lee Evans.

As a matter of fact, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel both started their careers performing pantomime-style sketches in British music halls with the famous Fred Karno troupe of comedians. Chaplin was the star of the ensemble, while Laurel (then Stan Jefferson) was his understudy.

One of Karno’s most famous shows was Mumming Birds. It’s fascinating to think they plugged the very British style of physical comedy into the mainframe of American humour.

Would we have seen Steve Martin and Jim Carrey without mummers plays?