It’s a Philly Thing!

The Philadelphia Mummers Parade, which marches every New Year’s Day, has been a feature of the cultural history of the City of Brotherly Love since colonial times.  Beginning as a rowdy display by drunken revellers dressed up in makeshift costumes begging food and drink from their more sober neighbors, the Mummers celebration has morphed into an elaborate big money TV extravaganza where those lining the parade route are more filled with the spirit of intoxication than the costumed caricatures performing for the cameras.

In solidarity with those days of yore when the common folk could frolic and caper without interference from upper crust Quakers, I give you this Swedish American New Year’s ditty.

Here we stand before your door,
As we stood the year before;
Give us whiskey; give us gin,
Open the door and let us in.
Or give us something nice and hot
Like a steaming hot bowl of pepper pot