Editing Molly dance (section)

==Traditions==
Traditionally Molly dancing took place over the Christmas season,{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=7}} particularly on [[Boxing Day]] and [[Plough Monday]] (the first Monday after [[Epiphany (Christian)|Epiphany]]).{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=17}} Pre-revival molly dancing was an all-male tradition, though women sometimes joined in the dancing.{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=19}} Unemployed farmworkers danced both to entertain themselves and as a way of making some money in a season where there was little demand for agricultural labour.{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=17}} In some cases, the money raised was used for charity – as for instance in Brandon Creek, near [[Littleport]], where until the 1850s it was used to buy food for local widows.{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=16}} 

Molly dancers dressed in ordinary clothes decorated with ribbons and rosettes, wore top hats, and blacked their faces as a form of disguise.{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|pp=7; 12–13; 18–19}}  One or more dancers dressed in women's clothing – in some accounts half of the dancers were dressed as women.{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=18}} Along with the dancers, molly teams were accompanied by various other men who performed specific roles, including an umbrella man, to protect the musician from the weather, a sweeper who carried a broom and would clear a space for the dancers, and the man responsible for the money box.{{sfn|Bradtke|1999|p=19}}  The Molly team seen by William Palmer at Little Downham in 1933 consisted of six men, one dressed as a woman; of the remaining five, one carried a broom and money box, and one played the accordion.  The musician wore ordinary clothes, while the other men wore frock coats and top hats; all five had blackened faces and wore ribbons on their clothes.{{sfn|Palmer|1974|p=24}}