Happy New Year. I hope you’re not suffering the morning after the night before.

What’s on your mind? (Yes, since we don’t get never-right trolls I can be direct and honest.) How will you pass this day?

I’ll be watching the Philadelphia Mummers Parade today at 2PM. This New Years Day classic has been a sure-fire favorite in the past. It’s available on Philadelphia’s Channel 17 and on Super Station WGN if you’re got cable or DirecTV. The entire show takes about 8 hours.

Each band works up a routine to a specific theme. Here are Some particular highlights.

Pay close attention to what has become the single most familiar feature: the Mummers’ Strut.

If you don’t know about the Mummers you can get a brief idea here and here. The annual parade is kinda sorta like the New Orleans Mardi Gras shows put on by the various crews, back before George Bu$h proved he didn’t give a shit about black people and poor white people.

There’s a large number of Mummers’ videos on YouTube.

Our British cousins have a Mummers’ tradition, as seen here in a performance put on by a Wessex Morris dance group in Dorset, in a pub (where else to find humor and conviviality in the Winter?