Not an activity, Just something interesting to share

MUMMING
Records indicate that Mumming was a processional visitation to a private house of a social superior. The 'visitors' would be masked and possibly in costume, and they would devise some game to be played (such as dice), to generate the giving of a gift.

John Stow finds the earliest full description of mumming in a Survey of London. It tells of 130 people who rode in costume to the palace of Richard 2nd at Kensington in 1371. Once there they played dice with the young king making sure he would win the prize of 3 jewels. The entertainment ending with music and dancing. In another account of Mumming, a group arrived silently at a house, employed a herald to beg leave for their intrusion, and explain why they were there. Leave being granted they danced among themselves but not with their host, presented their gifts, and then departed as silently as they came.

In 1418, 1479 and 1511 mumming was banned on an issue of public safety. After 1418 mumming changed and became an arranged visit by disguised friends and dice playing almost exclusively replace by gift giving.

A disastrous case of mumming is recorded from the French court of 1393, where a group of mummers entered dressed as wild men. During an accident with a torchbearer, the costumes caught fire and all but one of the mummers died.

Mumming should not be confused with the Mummers plays from the 17th century.