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Looking over last night's post it occurs to me that it probably makes no sense to anyone who hasn't seen the Mummer's parade. So here's a brief overview:

The Mummer's Parade is a New Year's Day parade in South Philadelphia. It's been around for just over a hundred years, and I think it existed in some unofficial form for several decades before. The parade comprises four parts:

1. The comics. My impression is this is the least formal part of the parade. Folks dress up in funny costumes, often but not always in large groups. I think there's generally no performance except that they do the Mummer's Strut (a dancing walk traditional to the parade). Here's a cute photo of a comic club, and here's another.
2. The fancies. These are sort of like small floats or big costumes. Lots of ostrich feathers, lamé and mirrored surfaces. Some are on wheels, with the person inside pushing; some are smaller and are carried by the person the whole route. I seem to recall that there are lots of rules governing each type of fancy entry, for instance they have to include certain symbols like diamonds or horseshoes. I found a Flickr stream with great photos from 2007 including a large fancy and tricolor fancies.
3. The string bands. The string bands, for me, are the best part of the Mummers. They put on elaborate performances with dancing, a musical medley and elaborate costumes on a theme like "Jungle Jam" or "Toyland Comes Alive." The music is mainly banjo, accordion and sax, although I don't know the entire band lineup. Like the fancies, the costumes feature lots of ostrich feathers, lamé and sequins. I think the string bands would probably seem somewhat familiar to anyone who's seen the New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes. This is a nice photo of a string band. It's fun sometimes to try to guess the theme based on the costumes: are these guys supposed to be Peruvian? And here's a costume closeup, of a guy wearing baguette epaulettes because he was in a Paris-themed performance. That is so Mummers.
4. The fancy brigades. The fancy brigades aren't actually in the parade route. They perform at the Convention Center after the parade. They're a lot like the string bands -- a competitive music and dance competition with big shiny costumes -- but since they don't walk the parade route, the props are much bigger and more elaborate. And I think they use recorded music, not live string band music. I couldn't find any photos of the fancy brigades on Flickr. Just someone who posted dozens of fancies mislabeled as fancy brigades. Here's the photo album from Shooting Stars, one of the biggest fancy brigade clubs.