It has been a rather sedate holiday period for me, I've not been out to the games once yet. It seems like one or the other child is staying at home so here I sit. But I did manage to partake in some of the New Years festivities.
Like Christmas New Years is met up here first with a Church Service, and the four of us went to the service in the gym. The service starts around 10:00 pm and winds up with Auld Lang Syne in inuktitut. Luckily this year the service was timed right and there was only three or four verses sung before the countdown to midnight starts. Some years you're singing the thing over and over and over for 10 minutes until the countdown.
At the stroke of midnight everyone mingles for awhile shaking hands and wishing your friends and neighbours a Happy New Year, and then everyone heads outside for more festivities. The Rangers generally shoot off a volley, and then everyone, or it seems like everyone, hops on a snowmachine or ATV and heads out to Uluksan point. From there the snowmobiles (and some trucks and cars) head back to town on the ice in a long line, snaking around in a grand parade. I've been told that they spell "2009" (or what ever the new year happens to be) but I've never been able to see that.
This year there were 71 machines that I counted. Here is what a five minute exposure of the line looks like. Rather over exposed and there is enough ambiant light to show King George in the background.
This is a shorter exposure that I think does the trick a little better.
After the parade, Hilary was fading quickly and the two of us went home. Leah (who was on one of those 71 snowmobiles) and Travis went to the dance and inuktitut danced the night away, Travis until 3:00 am, Leah, um, later than that.
Inuktitut dancing for the uninitiated is a form of square dancing, brought in originally by Scottish Whalers, and adapted as the years went on. No one calls, and how anyone knows what they are supposed to be doing or where they are supposed to be is beyond me. I think Leah took some footage and I'll probably put some up later. In the mean time you can go here to satisfy your curiosity.
Comments
9 responses
So different from our NYE celebrations. Love hearing the details! Thanks — those pictures are really neat!
Those are some cool photos and great-sounding New Year’s Eve traditions. We have games and the church service here, but that riding around on skidoos, etc…that’s just a hoot! I’ll have to mention it to a few folks here and see if it catches on. 🙂 What is the population of Arctic Bay, anyway? 71 snow machines sounds like a lot!
Thanks Liza.
Hi Kimberlee, Its quite common in the Baffin, I know other communities do it on Christmas day also. Population here is right around 700, so better than 10 percent of the population was in the parade (a lot of the machines have more than one person on them).
Oh, hi I am new to your blog and just wanted to say. I think i am really going to enjoy it. As my cheeks are still glowing from the outdoors, i always long for more North. I guess that’s where you’re at. Jezon
Welcome Jezon and thanks, I am indeed in the North.
Just found your blog–I always enjoy reading blogs of people who live in the North, as it’s somewhere that I’ve always wanted to go.
A question–I’m looking for lyrics to Christmas carols in Inuktitut (the Inuktitut lyrics to Auld Land Syne would be awesome, too.) Do you have access to, or know where I could find, printed lyrics to Inuktitut Christmas songs?
Thanks!
Hi Grace,
I can probably get the words to a bunch in Inuktitut, but I’m not sure if it will be much help because they’ll be in syllabics. I don’t know where I could find them written in Roman orthography. Email me if you’d like copies of some in syllabics.
Hey Clare – Happy New Year – sounds like you had a great time. We were so fed up in Peterhead, telly was rubbish, and we weren’t out – we just stayed up til 12.30am. What a washout!
Anyway – Saturday is the ‘Burning of the Clavie’ in the Morayshire village of Burghead here in Scotland – it’s based on an old Celtic fire festival to bring good luck for the harvest of sea and land; The actual date is the 11th Jan, the old new year, but since that’s a Sunday this year, they’re keeping the Sabbath and having it on Sat. Thought it would be of interest to Arctic bloggers as am sure there have been similar festivals around there.
Lerwick in Shetland’s ‘Up Helly-Aa’ will take place in 3 weeks time – which involves the spectacular burning of a Viking galley and rabble-rousing locals dressed up as Norsemen!
So happy Yule to all,
Bliadhna Mhath Ur
best wishes
FJ
Hi Fiona-Jane. Always nice to hear from you. I wonder just what it is about fire and New Years. There is usually a bonfire here (I may have just missed it) but the favourite use of fire at New Years was in Ecuador. There they burn effigies of the old year at midnight, symbolically getting rid of the bad things from the past year. It was a tradition I kept for several years.