The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Newfoundland is made up of many different communities. Even though all are Newfoundlanders, the communities have their unique ways of celebrating Christmas. Many people on the southern Avalon Peninsula are of Irish descent. At Christmas they enjoy going to someone's house for a good scoff. A scoff is a big cooked meal of vegetables and salt beef. Conne River is a community near Bay d'Espoir where Micmac Indians live. Early Micmacs celebrated Christmas by cutting three pieces of hardwood on Christmas Eve. The people would get together and burn the wood they had cut the year before. Then the men would bring in the three new pieces of wood. The people would offer prayers in the Micmac language. Greenspond is a small island in the Bonavista Bay. A causeway joins it to the island of Newfoundland. Many people here still carry on the old Newfoundland Christmas tradition called mummering. Mummers dress in costumes and go from house to house. They sing and dance and have a snack. Many people on the Port au Port Peninsula are of French ancestry. They go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning they open gifts from Pere Noel. Pere Noel is French for Father Christmas. The Christmas morning meal is called reveillon. Reveillon means let's wake up. * * * Something to Ponder... ÊWhen we remember a special Christmas, it is not the presents that made it special, but the laughter, the feeling of love, and the togetherness of friends and family. (East of Here will be taking a break until sometime in the new year).
