"Buy a broom in May, and you will sweep your family away."

Mr Heber Heffern of Salvage "running" a birch broom.

I got a phonecall yesterday from a friend who happened to be at a shop on Stavanger Drive. She was pondering buying a broom, but knew that there was one month when she wasn’t supposed to. A friend with her was trying to talk her out of buying it.  I told her that it was, indeed, May month that was said to be bad luck for buying a broom. Off she went, broomless, with plans to go back June 1st. All in a day’s work for your friendly neighbourhood folklorist.

A brochure printed by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1955, titled "Historic Newfoundland and Labrador" included buying a broom in May in a list of things thought to bring bad luck. The belief is an old one, and not specific to Newfoundland; folk beliefs about brooms are found in many places. The 1873 Folk-Lore Record [I. 52] included this English belief:

The old gentleman‥strictly forbade green brooms being used in his house during the month of May, and, as a reason for the prohibition, used to quote the adage—‘If you sweep the house with broom in May, You'll sweep the head of that house away’.

According to Punjabi folk belief, “care is taken to see that no broom remains lying anywhere in that room [where a child is born] because it will sweep off all the luck of the newborn baby.”

Are you familiar with this tradition in Newfoundland? If so, which communities had that folk belief? Leave a comment!

Links:

http://ngb.chebucto.org/Articles/folk-lore.shtml

http://crimsonwolfe.tripod.com/id26.html

Folksongs and Folk Revival at the Water Street Book Club

This Thursday, May 27th at 7:00 p.m., the Water Street Book club will have a special presentation by Anna Kearney Guigné on her book,"Folksongs and Folk Revival; The Cultural Politics of Kenneth Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports".

Anna holds a Ph.D in folklore from Memorial University, and this book looks at one of the most famous collections of Newfoundland songs, the three volume work "Songs of the Newfoundland Outports". Kenneth Peacock collected the songs over six years on behalf of the National Museum of Canada. Folksongs and Folk Revivial provides a critical review of Peacock's Newfoundland fieldwork to understand better his motivations for creating Outports and his treatment of the materials he collected.

Anna is also bringing some of Peacock's actual recordings to share with the audience. Copies of the book for sale at the Water Street Heritage Shop as well.

309 Water Street, second floor
7:00 p.m. Thursday, May 27th.

Gravel Pit Camping and Newfoundland Culture?

It's the 24th of May and we likes to get away
Up in the woods or going out the bay
There's all kinds of places but the place we likes to get
Is up on the highway in the gravel pits

Recorded by: Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers
Written by: Wayne Chaulk
http://www.buddywasisname.com

The May long weekend is fast approaching, which means the ongoing debate over the legality of gravel pit camping is back in the news. I woke this morning to CBC radio’s interview with one MHA, and the idea was mentioned, again, that camping in a gravel pit is part of Newfoundland’s culture.

Well, a quick internet search reveals gravel pit camping aficionados in Alaska, Oregon, Maine, Russia, Sweden and Venezuela! So while it may be part of local culture, it seems it is something that is not unique to here. I’m not sure how readily available Vienna sausages are in Venezuela, however…

Sound like a thesis topic for a future folklore graduate student? Here are a few articles to get you started:

Bates, Wanda
Summer in the pits [re gravel pit camping]
Canadian Geographic, July/August 2003, Vol. 123(4), pp. 100-101.

Collins, David N.
Foe, Friend and Fragility: Evolving Settler Interactions with the Newfoundland Wilderness
British Journal of Canadian Studies, May 2008, Vol 21(1), pp. 35-62.

Furlong, Jim
Rain, fog and Vienna sausages
Newfoundland Herald, May 18-24 2003, Vol. 58(20), p. 36

Ruby, Winston
Gravel pit camping Labour Day weekend, Sept. 3, 1984
TickleAce, Spring - Summer 1986, (12), pp. 55-57.

Young, Ron
Gravel pit camping [and gov't. policy]
Downhomer, April 1997, Vol. 9(11), pp. 29-30.

Podcast & Video - Jerome Canning makes a sculling oar

The Canadian Museums Association conference has been running this week, and one of the demonstrations was by Jerome Canning, a boatbuilder working with the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador in Winterton.

I spoke with Jerome about the sculling oar he was working on at the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland. In the podcast, Jerome describes what a sculling oar is, and how he is making it.

You can listen to a streaming audio version of the interview here:


Or you can download the podcast in MP3 format from:
http://www.archive.org/download/MakingAScullingOar/JeromeCanningMay13_2010.MP3

I have placed a very short video clip on YouTube of Jerome using a spokeshave to thin down the handle of the oar. You can see that video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGWk-JA4we4

or check out the embedded video here:

Folklore and Education Newsletter for 2010 Online

This just in on the PUBLORE listserv:

The annual newsletter for the Folklore and Education of the American Folklore Society is is completed. You'll find a report of the section's meeting, info on new resources for folklorists, a report from the "Local Learning" component of the AFS meeting, an index for various workshops on folklore and oral history, reviews of books that are relevant to folklore and education, and various and sundry reports and announcements. Plus, a cool picture of T-Model Ford, MS bluesman talking with students awaits your gaze, glance, twink, blink or whatever visual code you are using these days.

Anyone is welcome to use the newsletter, and the education section welcomes one-and-all to the next section meeting at AFS in Nashville.

Here's the link:

http://www.afsnet.org/sections/education/Spring2010/

Stories, Kids, Dancing, and Wooden Boats! ICH Update for May 2010

In this issue of the ICH Update, Dr. Gerald Pocius, Chair of the Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee gives a review of ICH in Newfoundland and Labrador; Cape Bonavista Interpretation Centre wants your stories about the Cape; Grade Four students and Cape St. Francis School, Pouch Cove, start work on a community oral history project; dancers hit Quidi Vidi Village; and the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador invites you to help them restore a vintage Gander River boat.

Download the pdf at:
http://tinyurl.com/2ec5ukt

ICH Update for April 2010

In this month's edition of the ICH Update, the community of Branch adds a photo collection to the Digital Archives Initiative, the Refugee and Immigrant Advisory Council (RIAC) launches a community project which will document the life stories of culturally diverse seniors, Canadian Second World War veterans are given the opportunity to preserve their memories, our Digital Archives intern works on digitizing boatbuilding interviews, and three writers talk about the importance of preserving oral history.

Download the pdf at:
http://www.archive.org/download/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdate015April2010/ichupdate015.pdf

Happy Easter from the Intangible Cultural Heritage office

The ICH office is closing down for Easter, and will re-open on Tuesday, April 6th. In honour of Easter (and April 1st), I present this happy holiday photo, courtesy of former HFNL staffer Lara Maynard. Have a good Easter,  Newfoundland and Labrador! (click photo for larger version)

Riddle me this, folklore boy: Two traditional riddles from Forteau Labrador

More proof that I have a truly fun job: I just finished a very lively, funny session in Blanc Sablon, complete with an impromptu Lower North Shore Square set, rhymes in English and French, local insults and folk beliefs, and about 10 women all instinctively making the sign of the cross in the air when I put up a picture of a single crow as part of a power point presentation on intangible cultural heritage.

We also talked about riddles. Here are two collected from Clara Buckle, who learned them from her father, James Buckle, of Buckle's Point, Forteau, Labrador:

Riddle #1.

As I was walking up London Bridge
I met a London scholar
And drew off his coat, And drew off his cap
I told you the name of that scholar.

Riddle #2.

It is in meadows not in fields
It is in mountains not in hills
It is in me not in you
It is in men and women too.

Guess away!