Christmas tradition continues in Otterbourne (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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Christmas tradition continues in Otterbourne
5:00pm Thursday 27th December 2012 in News
Mummers perform their traditional play in Otterbourne
A CHRISTMAS tradition continued in Otterbourne last week.
The annual ‘mummers’ play took place on Sunday, December 23, in Park Lane, Otterbourne, drawing a crowd of residents.
Mummers and ‘guisers’, performers in disguise, put on folk plays in colourful costumes portraying comical stories of good versus evil.
Otterbourne villagers have performed for more than a century and their play depicts ‘King George’ battling a Turkish knight.
Young men from the village would practice in the weeks before Christmas in the village Reading Room opposite the White Horse pub but the custom was lost for decades after many villagers were killed in World War One.
But in 1975 the tradition restarted with a new crop of villagers performing at the village hall, social club and pubs until relocating to Park Lane.
