Newfoundland holiday tradition hits Wheat City

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This article was published 29/12/2015 (3786 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A long-standing Newfoundland and Labrador holiday tradition found its way into western Manitoba this weekend, when a group of East Coast transplants donned pillowcases and lampshades and started door-knocking.

Mummering, mumming or janneying is the practice of dressing up in a disguise — usually made of household items — and visiting friends’ homes to entertain and play a guessing game.

“The tradition is that as you go to each house you’re offered a drink, but the drink was only offered once they figured out who you were,” Newfoundland and Labrador native Tom Brophy said. “It almost became a rite of passage when you got of age.”

Aside from the silly costumes, mummers often distort their voices and walk strangely to avoid identification.

Traditionally, groups of mummers must be invited in by the host before they can enter a home.

Brophy, associate vice-president of student services and enrolment management at Brandon University, says mummering is a fun way to bring Christmas traditions from back home to Brandon.

“It’s really special because it’s a piece of home while you’re away,” Brophy said, adding that he hopes the tradition will become an annual event locally.

This is the second year mummers have gotten together in Brandon and on Sunday night, Brophy joined nine or so others from back east and visited three homes — all of which were expecting the masked visitors.

Assiniboine Community College president Mark Frison was among the group and says the practice isn’t well-known enough locally to be traipsing all over town.

“It might be quite a shock if we sort of randomly showed up on somebody’s doorstep in Brandon who didn’t know us,” said Frison, who is originally from Nova Scotia.

Mummering got started in England and its establishment in Newfoundland can be traced back hundreds of years, according to The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website — a history project of Memorial University.

In St. John’s during the 1840s, the tradition was marred by alcohol-fuelled violence stemming from religious and political tensions in the area. In June 1861, the practice was legally abolished in Newfoundland.

Today, mummering continues in smaller centres throughout the East Coast, although larger mummering festivals have largely replaced the home visits.

While there were no violent outbreaks on Sunday, Frison says there was a lot of music.

“Lots of it was traditional East Coast music … and then some traditional Irish music and some rock after that,” he said.

Frison has been living in Brandon for more than a decade, but there are certain eastern customs that still stir up a bit of home sickness.

“One of the pieces we miss most from home is the music … a big part of it, for us, is having that opportunity to get together with friends and sing some more traditional songs,” Frison said.

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