SOCI201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Mummers Play, Working Class Culture, Black Sheep

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI201
• Professor: Best Joel

Document Summary

Holidays (cid:862)maki(cid:374)g the (cid:374)ight hideous(cid:863): christ(cid:373)as re(cid:448)elr(cid:455) a(cid:374)d pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) order i(cid:374) (cid:374)i(cid:374)etee(cid:374)th-century. For most of the nineteenth century respectable philadelphians condemned christmas as a disgrace. The history of christmas in philadelphia exemplifies the conflict within and between classes over behavior in public. This street festival emerged in the early 19th century. The lives of the majority of philadelphians were defined by hand labor, seasonal industry, and irregular employment. Worki(cid:374)g people"s so(cid:272)ial life a(cid:374)d re(cid:272)reatio(cid:374) similarly combined the familiar and the new as they found leisure in commercial and customary entertainments. Early city life of the century was marked by the interpretation of work and leisure, an incomplete spatial segregation of peoples and activities, and a blending of the informal and the emergent commercial. Christmas was the major punctuation of the european traditional year, and. The holiday was at a time of sharp contrast between work and leisure.