Lost Titanic gravesite in St. John's, Newfoundland: Truth or Myth?

I got an interesting note from Dave Snow at Wildland Tours the other day. Dave writes:

"It is my understanding that in late April, 1912 a body was found floating on the Grand Banks. There was no identification on the body so it was picked up, taken to St. John’s, and buried in the Forest Road cemetery. This was most likely an unnamed Titanic victim."

According to Dave, a Titanic lifejacket in The Rooms came from a body that was shipped to Halifax, which is where the photo above was taken. He wanted to know I knew where this St. John's gravesite is, of I could verify the story.  It is a new one to me, but I'd love to know more.

If you've come across this tidbit of local folklore before, and have an idea if is truth or legend, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

Any details would be appreciated!!

Mummers, Hobby Horses, The Battle of Foxtrap, and preserving local stories

In this edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador:

• The mummers festival returns for another year and another mummer's parade; 
• Melissa Squarey learns how to make her very own hobby horse; 
• Karen Spencer shares how Conception Bay South is preserving their history with three booklets on the Kelligrew's Soiree, the Battle of Fox Trap, and the Agricultural History of Conception Bay South; 
• a discussion of "bucking" and Bonfire Night memories on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative; and,
• more on the Baccalieu Trail Public Folklore Project and a need to safeguard the tradition of old time community concerts and times.

Download the pdf here.
or
View it online here.

How to Make a Tin Can Lantern - The Do-it-yourself Comic!

Back in November, we hosted a tin can lantern making workshop with the Friends of Victoria Park Lantern Festival, as part of our Festival on Fire.

If you missed it, but want to make a tin can lantern of your own, here is a do-it-yourself, how-to comic version of the workshop!

Click the image to open it full size. Have fun!

Hobby Horse Making Workshops - What is a hobby horse, anyway?

When most people today think of a hobby horse, they think of the child's toy - a horse's head on a stick. But in Newfoundland, the hobby horse was, and is, part of a very different Christmas tradition, part of the holiday season house-visiting tradition.

Far from the harmless child's toy, Newfoundland Hobby Horses were something a bit more frightening. A horse's head, with wandering bottle cap eyes and nails for teeth, the janney’s ‘hobby horse’ or ‘horsey-hops’ is an odd creature. Most hobby horses had jaws that would "snock" together loudly as it bumbled around, snapping at other visitors and frightening children.

Not every community in the province had the hobby horse, and many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have never heard of the practise. Read Andrea O'Brien's article on the Hobby Horse tradition here.

As part of the annual Mummers Festival, there will be a series of hobby horse building workshops. People can come, learn how to build a hobby horse, and then gallop to the Mummers Parade on December 18th. The workshops were one of my favourite parts of the festival last year, and I'm glad that they are back.

R.A. Templeton Ltd., a long-time Newfoundland paint distributor, is one of the materials sponsors this year, along with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the City of St. John's. This allows the workshops to be kept free, but participants are invited to bring along any of the suggested materials on the workshop webpage to help offset our costs. Material and cash donations are welcome (you can email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca if you have materials to donate).

Details of the workshops can be found here including info on times, location, and parking.

Can't make it, but still want to create a hobby horse? Read Ryan Davis's 2009 DIY article in The Scope, or download the template to make your own horse's head.

Memories of Christmas Past: Story-Sharing, Seniors, and Syrup!

Christmas is coming, and that means lots of holiday memories. But is Christmas today exactly what it was years ago? Some of the older traditions are changing, perhaps, and there is always the danger that the stories of some of our senior population could vanish suddenly.

To help save Christmas stories, we are organizing a memory-sharing event for seniors in Carbonear on December 10th.

"Losing our cultural heritage is tantamount to losing our identity and it can so easily fade from our society," says organizer Florence Button. "I'm hearing all kinds of interesting tidbits from our older population."

At the event, we’ll have a lunch, some Purity syrup and Christmas cake, and I’ll be getting seniors to talk about their memories about Christmases years ago, allowing all the old tales and stories to float to the surface.

Hopefully, we’ll identify some people for follow-up interviews, for the Christmas Traditions section of Memorial University's Digital Archives Project.

The model for the memory-sharing side of the event is the "Mug-Up" program, which was started in Labrador. Folklorist Martha MacDonald, with the Labrador Institute, was one of the key organizers of the Labrador Mug-Ups. Mug-Ups brought people together over lunch to talk informally about stories on various themes. You can listen to an interview I did with Martha about Mug-Ups here.

Memories of Christmas Past
Time: Friday, December 10 @ 10:30 a.m.
Carbonear Pool: Multi Purpose Room
Florence HAS to be notified prior to your attending, due to food ordering and space limitations!!
709-596-7535 or by email: fabutton@yahoo.ca


Absolute last date to book your seat: 8th of December, Wednesday but it is recommended that it be done before that date. Thank you.

Help spread the word about the 2010 Mummers Festival and hashtag #mummerfest

The 2010 Mummers Festival is fast approaching, and we'd like your help in spreading the word as much as possible. In particular, we want to make sure people know about the Mummers Parade on December 18th, so we get many mummers madly marching!

You can help online in a couple ways:

Facebook
There is a Mummers Parade Event Listing at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104152442989371
RSVP and invite your friends

Twitter
If you tweet anything about the festival or the workshops, use the new twitter hashtag #mummerfest

Website
Looking for info on the festival workshops, films, and lectures? Visit the website for full info at http://www.mummersfestival.ca

STEP Fiddlers release new CD of traditional Newfoundland and Labrador tunes

The STEP Fiddlers are proud to present a FREE concert of selections from their new CD Fiddling in the Fog on Saturday December 4th, from 3 to 5 pm, at Aula Maxima Hall in St. Bonaventure's College, 2 Bonaventure Avenue. Admission is free, but a donation of non-perishable food, or cash, is requested for the Emmaus food bank.

The STEP Fiddlers are a group of 20 talented young musicians aged 9 to 19 who specialize in the traditional dance music of Newfoundland and Labrador. The group, a subset of the Suzuki Talent Education Program, has existed for 28 years under the direction of legendary St. John’s fiddler Christina Smith, with over 200 members over its lifetime. Fiddling in the Fog is their second CD, a delightful collection of rare jigs, reels, and waltzes. The tunes have been passed down to the group from old-style Newfoundland musicians, and arranged for fiddle, bodhran, dobro, cello and guitar. Accompanying the Fiddlers are stars of the local folk-music scene, Dave Panting, Jean Hewson, Rick West and John Clarke. The CD is now available at Fred's Records and O'Brien's Music Store.

web: http://suzukinl.ca/stepfiddlers

Help provide ideas for a new exhibit at The Rooms

When The Rooms opened, there were some comments that the Museum component did not do enough to tell the stories of 19th to 21st century Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Since then, the facility has made an attempt to fix that problem, creating new displays and developing temporary exhibits.

Now, The Rooms has announced that in Spring 2013, the Elinor Gill Ratcliffe Gallery will open an exhibition which will tell Newfoundland and Labrador's "Social History" through stories of significant events, people, industries and traditions.

The museum will be selecting themes which reflect times of disappointment and loss, as well as celebration and pride. To do so, they are looking for public input.

"I am hoping that people will help us with ideas for the big stories, traditions, events, figures, and cultural stories of the province from the late 1700s to the present," says Mark Ferguson, Manager of Collections and Exhibitions for The Rooms Corporation, Provincial Museum Division.

You can have your say online at:

http://www.therooms.ca/information.html

On the page, there is a basic form to submit ideas. Deadline for submissions is December 1st, 2010, so send The Rooms your ideas quickly.

Newfoundland expression for "chat" or "conversation"? Thoughts?

I'm looking for a Newfoundland expression to mean "having a conversation" or "having a chat" or "sharing stories." Do you have a memory of something like "having a yarn" or a similiar expression? Coming out of the Baccalieu Trail Public Folklore workshop, we're going to be developing a series of community gatherings where people can share informal knowledge about the places they live, and I need a name for the series!

Let me know what you think! Email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.  I'll post people's suggestions below. If you have something, let me know what community you heard it in, as well.

Some suggestions so far:

chewing the fat
having a natter
a gab
yarnin'
a natter
chaw
a jaw
guff
yacking
a chin wag
"goin' fishin' and tellin' lies"

"My papa says 'we had a good ole yarn' to mean chat, not story. He also calls someone overly talkative - 'ole yawmouth'" - Alison Aylward