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Dust off “dem golden slippers” and strut off to Philadelphia for a splendiferous New Year celebration. Philly’s Winter Mummerland is a multi-day family event that culminates in the Mummer’s Parade, America’s oldest folk parade, on New Year’s Day, where the weather may be cold, but the hospitality is red-hot. The costumes and fun evoke Mardi Gras, the floats compare with those in the Tournament of Roses Parade, but best of all it is fun for the whole family.

The Mummers Parade grew out of European customs brought by early settlers from Sweden and Finland who celebrated the holidays by banging pots and pans, shooting their pistols and muskets into the air, and clanging bells and other noise makers. Reports of these rowdy groups "parading" on New Year’s Day date back before the American Revolution.

Every New Year’s Day thousands line the parade route. First are the Comics, burly men with yarn braids decked out in frilly, bright satin dresses toting matching parasols, with shoes or sneakers sprayed gold, dance and strut down the street interacting with the crowd. Next come The Fancies with costumes so elaborate and immense that they look like miniature one-person floats. Some headpiece can weigh 70 pounds. The String Bands are the last section of the parade with their unique sound made up mainly of woodwinds, strings, and percussion. While the costumes are fanciful the focus is on music. For a while everyone is a Mummer with some spectators unable to resist the urge to do the Mummers Strut along the sidelines when they hear “O dem Golden Slippers,” the unofficial Mummers theme song composed by Philadelphian James Bland in 1879 or “Happy Days are Here Again,” another signature song.

http://www.examiner.com/destinations-travel-in-national/head-to-philadelphia-for-the-best-new-year-s-day-celebration