Costumes & Equipment
Costumes, or "Kits"
Sources say early Morris dancers were "gaudy creatures" in colorful satin and bright hose. Our costumes, or "kits," are traditional Morris whites with festive trimmings and ringing bells. Our vests are embroidered with the team's symbol, three salamanders circling within a garland of evergreen ivy and flames. In myth, salamanders are impervious to fire and symbolize constancy within change. The ivy represents the ever-renewing earth.
Our original velvet vests were made using velvet from the mills in Mystic, linking us to our local textile history and continuing the traditions of Northwest Clog.
In addition to our garlands and clogs, you will see us dancing with:
Bobbins
Mystic Garland uses antique spindles for our “Mosely Bobbin Dance," though we do use bobbins for practice. Spindles and bobbins would have been easy to pick up when this tradition was forming. Bobbins are used like the sticks of other Morris traditions.
Slings
Extra ends of material, braided and decorated with ribbons, make up the “slings” we use as decoration in our kit. They also serve as equipment for two our of dances: Optimystic and Micklehurst.
Mollies
Mollies are colorfully decorated, short sticks with ribbons. Ours have bells on each end, adding extra sound to dances such as Portersville Processional, a dance we wrote ourselves. Both mollies and slings can be called either name, tiddlers or tassels.
Swords
In the Morris and Sword traditions there are two types of sword: longswords and rapper swords. Traditional Midwinter longsword dances create a lock, or interwoven shape, frequently a star, of swords which may circle a character’s neck in a mock decapitation representing the cycles of the seasons and of life. This is often performed as a part of a Mummer’s Play.
Hankies
Morris dancers have flourished handkerchiefs forever. Morris traditions used what was at hand. While not as common now, handkerchiefs have been ubiquitous for a very long time. Many Morris teams use white hankies to go along with their white kits; Mystic Garland uses red and yellow to accompany our kit.
Sticks
Morris dancers clash or tap the ground with sticks. Though we do not currently have many stick dances in our repertoire, Mystic Garland started as a stick and hanky team. We also join in "mass dances" with other teams to end the day dancing together.