> Coming Event:
SOCIETY TO HOST OLD-ENGLISH TWELFTH NIGHT REVEL
Jan. 6 Event Features Molly Dance and Other 18th- and 19th-century Holiday Customs
CAMDEN, N.J. -- Grab some friends and kick off the new year with something completely different at the Camden County Historical Society's Twelfth Night Revel
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| Photos: Hoag Levins |
Returning to perform at the Society's Jan. 6th, 2007, Twelfth Night event is Handsome Molly, a ten-member ritual dance group from Princeton that wowed the crowd with their 2005 appearance in Boyer Auditorium.
See 2005 Event Photos:
| on Saturday, January 6, from 7-10 p.m. Part music, part dance, part history and a whole lot of fun, Twelfth Night celebrates a custom dating back almost 2000 years.
Popular demand
Two years ago, the Camden County Historical Society hosted its first "Twelfth Night" celebration -- and it turned out to be one of the most popular and talked about events the organization has ever held. This year, by popular demand, the Society is again restaging a typical celebration of the Twelfth Night holiday tradtions that were, in 18th-century England and its colonies, more popular than those of Christmas Eve and Christmas day itself.
In 19th-century England, Twelfth Night celebrations ended the traditional twelve-day Christmas period, providing people one last chance for music, dance and merrymaking before returning to work.
Historic foods
You'll sample traditional Yuletide food and drink (including an edible replica of the Twelth Night cake enjoyed annually by George and Martha Washington); tour 18th-century Pomona Hall, decorated for the holidays and glowing with candlelight; and learn about Twelfth Night customs around the world. And if you've never seen the colorful spectacle of English molly dancing, you'll be in for a real treat when Handsome Molly, a dance team from Princeton, NJ, takes the floor.
Painted-face dancers
Molly dancing started in England's blustery peat bogs, where plow boys traditionally performed this ritual dance when they couldn't work during the frosts. On Plough Monday -- first Monday after Twelfth Night -- they dragged their plows through the villages and danced, shouting, "A penny for the plough boys!" and collecting money for food and beer. Some painted their faces so as not to be recognized, especially if they had just plowed up the garden of some skinflint who refused to drop change in their tins, while others dressed as women to mock the social conventions of the time, giving rise to the name molly dancers.
Admission is $10 for Society members, $12 for nonmembers, payable in advance or at the door. Still not sure what Twelfth Night and molly dancing is all about? See the links above to stories and photo pages from the 2005 Twelfth Night event. Then call (856-964-3333) or e-mail (cchsnj@verizon.net) the Society to reserve your seat for this very popular event.
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