I saw these costumes at Last Thursday on Alberta. The majority of it was comprehensible to me- various bands set up at regular intervals, drum circles, people on stilts, fairy wings. Normal stuff. One particular performance, though, was rather mystifying. I saw the figures pictured below, and found their presence genuinely enigmatic. They were dancing, and, later one, stood utterly still. I wondered if they were some sort of traditional costumery, or merely an invented weirdness. Are the below-pictured a thing? And, if so, what nature of thing? I was perplexed.
Hmm, you got me. At first I thought they were Mummers, like these guys: http://culturemob.com/blog/a-guide-to-the-2010-mummers-parade-in-philadelphia
However, upon closer inspection I see that they are not nearly so sophisticated and WAY weirder.
I miss the Mummers Parade.