While completing my undergraduate degree at Wake Forest, I attended an Art History class where a teacher had a slide presentation of early American cultural art.  He stopped in a slide of a bunch of people dressed in crazy festive costumes playing string instruments and asked if anyone in the class knew which group was in the slide.  I immediately raised my hand; it was the only hand raised, and said "the Mummers".  No one else in the class had heard of the Mummers.  No one else knew about the String Bands, the Fancies, the Comic Brigade or the Wenches. 

Per the Mummer's Museum, the origins of the Mummers:
  • "The English and Welsh arrived in Philadelphia in the 1680s and introduced Christmas Mumming plays.  Originally a public performance rewarded by food, drink or coins, the play tradition changed in Philadelphia.  Here, masqueraded groups visited neighbor's homes, reciting standard rhymes and partaking in refreshments."
 
  • "Philadelphia's various ethnic groups formed their own closely knit communities while sharing common neighborhood streets.  In Southwark, Moyamensing, and "the neck" below Oregon Avenue, Swedes, Germans, English and Irish celebrated Christmas and New Years in their own traditions.  Eventually these European customs mingled, incorporated black American images, and merged into the Mummers parade."
 
  • The Word Mummers:  "Any old timer will tell you that the paraders used to be called "New Year's Shooters" because they fired off guns to welcome the New Year.  But the practice was banned, and the name "Mummers" took over.  In German, Mumme means disguise, Mummenleid is a fancy dress, and Mummenspiel, a masquerade.  In medieval, Europe, disguised Mummers entered homes to dance of play dice in silence.  Today, English Mummers are townspeople who perform Chistmas plays in homemade costumes".

I have no idea what this all means.  All I know is that once a year, on January 1, a bunch of guys dress up as women and prance around with umbrellas, perform cringe-worthy comedic acts, and it's open container time.  It's an unbelievable spectacle and every year that I watch I tell myself, next year is the year I'm joining the Mummers. 
The Mummer's have been strutting down Broad Street since 1900 - a 119 year Philadelphia New Year's tradition.
The Mummers Museum is a colorful building on the corner of 2nd Street and Washington Avenue.  The Museum has a collection of parade costumes from over the years and provides some background on the history of the event including past parade routes.