Pancake Night was a valued custom when I was a child. Winter was a lean time and, though a drink cost a dime and a bag of chips a nickel, most days there was no money for either. My mother managed to put aside some change for Pancake Night. Most times, mothers made pancakes from scratch. Occasionally, Aunt Jemima supplied the flour. A few flicks of my mother’s wrist and the batter was ready. Household objects and money got a good scalding and were folded into the batter. Soon pancakes were sizzling in the pan hiding, sometimes scantily, objects that would do little to predict our future occupations.
There was a pin for Raggedy Anns who didn’t like sewing, a thread for a would-be seamstress, a ring to relieve a little girl of ever thinking she would remain a spinster, a nail for the little boy who would grow up to be a carpenter, etc. Pancake luck meant money. The next day storekeepers would be busy taking in pennies, nickels, and dimes (sometimes caked in pancake dough).
Uncle Fred Porter, though fully grown, enjoyed Pancake Night for a different reason. Each Pancake Night, while we were rummaging through pancakes looking for hard dough, my father would tell us about the time our uncle found a nail in his pancake.
When Uncle Fred was working away from home and staying in a boarding house, along with other boarders, he happened to be there on Pancake Night. The boarding mistress piled the boarders’ plates with pancakes holding a variety of hidden objects.
As the pancakes disappeared and objects were accounted for, the mistress became alarmed. She could account for every object she’d put into the pancake mixture except for a three-inch nail.
“Mr. Porter,” she said gravely, noticing my uncle clearing his throat a lot, “you must have swallowed the nail.”
“Well, missus,” Uncle Fred replied, “if I swallowed it, then I’ll have to try and bring it up.”
The woman couldn’t bring herself to reply. All the boarders sitting around the table stared at Uncle Fred.
Then, while everyone sat in stunned silence, Uncle Fred began to thump himself on the back. No one offered to help. Perhaps they were all beginning to believe that the man who had swallowed a nail also had a screw loose if he thought he was going to bring up a three-inch nail. After all, anything that goes down that large does not come up that easily.
Suddenly Uncle Fred coughed vigorously. Out popped the nail. The boarding mistress looked relieved while the other boarders looked as if their eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets.
Uncle Fred had found the nail in his pancake and – unobserved – had hidden it behind his teeth and waited for the inevitable search.
He was lucky to have had the last laugh over his practical – some people might think impractical – joke. After all, the nail could have slipped and surprised even Uncle Fred. It could have become the proverbial nail in his coffin.
• Only Inuit men were given the privilege of the sweat bath they poured themselves and the feast which the women served.
• Letting blood from a person’s body who was having bad luck would break the spell for everyone in an Esquimaux village.
• At one time the Esquimaux cut the hands of white orphans and used the blood to cure their sick.
• Beothuks were sometimes sacrificed to the spirits of the dead for making peace with white people and the Mi’kmaq. Their graves would not be furnished with grave goods. After death they would not go to the country of the good spirit.
• In times of starvation or famine the Inuit exposed newborn and aged people to the elements, killing them. If a new mother died, the baby was let die to save the strong.
• If a peddler with a “flipper” hand or some other deformity knocked on the door to the home of an expectant woman she would not answer for fear she would get a fright and her baby develop a malformation.
• If a young girl placed a broken egg on the road early in the morning she could determine the name of her husband-to-be.
• A new mother was kept in bed for nine days with a band around her body.
• “Chop the beam” was exclaimed as a mark was made in the beam of a house to note special occasions: birth, marriage, death.
• Women once turned their slips inside out on April Fool’s Day.
• On the eve of Midsummer Day (June 24) women picked midsummer men (stone crop, roseroot). They took two leaves and pasted them on the wall keeping a young man and woman in mind. If the leaves curled toward each other, the couple would be together. If the leaves curled away from each other, the couple would separate. This ritual was done for other couples in the community at the same time.
• An egg was cracked on the eve of Midsummer Day. It was placed in a clear glass on the window; the next morning a person could see different scenes: the moon, a cloud, a sailboat, etc.
• A king cake was made as a yearly tradition in Newfoundland families loyal to England. Inside the cake was a charm. Whoever found it in their piece of cake was king for the day.
• Bell jingles were put on the harness of horses to warn sledders or walkers coming the other way.
• Old-timers drove a nail into a tree to keep a vow. They pulled it out to break the vow.
• An oilskin placed on a raised pole in the mast hole of a boat once meant that a boat owner had enough fish to share with other boats.
• When a skipper went to sell his schooner he hoisted a birch broom (besom) to the masthead to indicate that the ship was for sale.
• Vinegar pie was made on Good Friday as a reminder of Jesus having vinegar placed on His lips.
• If two children wanted to find out who would be married first, they dried out the napper nose (wishbone, cracker bone, merrythought) of a cooked chicken or turkey and then they each hooked their small finger around a side of the forked bone and pulled. Whoever got the smallest piece would be married first. Whoever got the longest piece could make a wish. If a wishbone was broken in the bird, it meant that the cook’s wish had already come true.
• When a boat was launched the old-fashioned way, a hauling chanty was sung. With one voice the cove people sang a haulingdown song: “Haul on the bowline; kitty burst the tow line; haul, boys, haul.”
• On a bride’s and groom’s wedding night, they were shivareed. Neighbours showed up in the middle of the night, creating a hullabaloo, and expecting a mug-up. This was their way of welcoming the couple to the community.
• “Mar fauten” (various spelling) was a greeting given on April Fool’s Day. The person who addressed another person with “Mar fauten” expected a gift from the person he greeted.
• Christians dropped sheets over mirrors on Good Friday to avoid the strain of vanity that sometimes comes with looking in a mirror.
• When a child has a newborn sibling, he is told that his nose has been put out of joint.
• A bide-in feast was once held after a baby was born. It was a social time for family and friends to gather with a “groaning” cake.
• On Christmas Eve the bird for Christmas Day dinner was killed, kindling was stowed in the porch lockers, the hunting guns were in their racks, and the brewed homemade wine and beer were made ready.
• When women dropped a spoon or a fork on the floor they would step on it before the Devil could kiss it.
• On Christmas Day celebrators “blew the Christmas pudding out of the pot.” As the wife lifted the pudding from the pot, her husband stood by an open door and fired a gun with blanks (powder) into the air. A dram of rum and three cheers completed the ritual.
• On St. Stephen’s Day a figure of a wren was carried on a stick or bush by “wren boys.” Sometimes the bird was on the Christmas tree.
• Dried codfish were known as “Christmas fish” on St. Stephen’s Day.
Advent wreath ∼ originating as a Catholic custom, the wreath was made of green boughs.
black boys ∼ teaks (teagues) who blackened their faces and hands and wore black clothes and tall hats. They carried a blacky-boy staff (one blackened by fire). The black boys went ahead of mummers who caught up with them and rolled them in the snow as part of the game of mummering.
champkin ∼ a combatant in a mummers’ play.
Christmas back junk (Christmas block, yule log, white birch) ∼ a dry, topnotch log placed in the fire on Christmas Eve.
Christmas box ∼ gift.
Christmas box on you ∼ a greeting meaning Merry Christmas.
darbies (jannies, john jacks, mummers) ∼ people who dress up in odd clothes with their faces covered as they go from house to house banging on doors and asking, “Any mummers allowed in?”
dark one ∼ a janny whose identity no one can guess.
dress in the fools; go out in the fools. ∼ to dress in comical disguise and go from door to door acting foolish.
eunchucks ∼ long garments worn by male mummers.
false face ∼ a mummer’s mask.
freely ∼ mummers’ bakeapple drink.
gully stick ∼ a straight pole which passed through the hole of a barrel used to carry water. If a Christmas visitor showed up during supper on Christmas Eve, he was sent home on a gully stick without his supper.
“heave up” ∼ an order for a mummer to lift the disguise covering his face.
horsey hops (hobby horse’s jaws, lopchops) ∼ the figure of a horse’s head mummers carry during Christmas. They control its movable jaws (containing nails for teeth) by a string while they half-dance and half-shake.
Inuvia (Inuit) ∼ Christmas.
janny talk (cramp talk) ∼ to speak with indrawn breath, using distorted speech to disguise a person’s way of speaking.
janny up ∼ dress up. Go out in the jannies.
morgan ∼ an adult mummer.
mummering period ∼ December 26–January 6.
nalujuks (nalujaks) ∼ Inuit name for spirit figures. The name was given to jannies who visited Inuit communities on Old Christmas Day offering candies to children who were good, and the swat of a stick to those who bullied others.
nalyjuit night ∼ janny night (January 6).
nalyjuits (Inuit for Christmas mummers) ∼ people disguised and going from house to house during the Twelve days of Christmas.
old scripture cake ∼ Christmas cake made from a recipe drawn from Bible texts.
old teaks (teagues) and jannies ∼ Christmas party gatecrashers and pranksters.
shoo ∼ someone who clears the house for mummers to act their play.
snock ∼ to make a snapping noise, like the gnashing of hobby horse’s teeth.
soldier ∼ a performer in the Christmas mummers’ play.
strip ∼ to remove a mummer’s disguise.
swab ∼ a mock sceptre sometimes made from a cow’s tail fastened to a stick. It was also made from fish bladders filled with pebbles to make it rattle. It was poked at spectators.
throw up (give up) ∼ to remove a mummer’s mask.
tossels (tassels) ∼ Birch rind was often made into masks with tassels on them from the rind.
vee (veil) ∼ a false face worn by a mummer.
An old fellow said, “There are no don’ts to do on a Sunday anymore.”
Don’t
• play cards on a splitting table on Sunday.
• drive nails on Sunday.
• cleave wood on Sunday if you don’t want to end up on the moon with a back burn of wood.
• turn your mattress on the Lord’s Day if you want to get your week’s rest.
• use scissors on Sunday if you don’t want to shorten your time on earth.
• look into a mirror on Sunday.
• run on the Lord’s Day.
• shave on Sunday.
Black Monday ∼ Fishermen’s hands were sore and stiff from lying over Sunday (not being used).
civil day ∼ a calm day.
Clavie Day ∼ Old blubber casks were split up and set alight, burning the old year, smoking the sky to open the new year.
coombs’ day ∼ a day of bad weather.
cow days ∼ April 1–13, cold and windy.
Devil’s birthday ∼ Saturday: pea soup day.
dole days ∼ depression (1930s).
duff day ∼ the day on which a boiled duff was served as the main meal to loggers, usually Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
dullstunner ∼ a cloudy, damp day.
Guy Fawkes’ Day ∼ Bonfires are lit on November 5 all over the island as a reminder of Guy Fawkes, the English conspirator who was hanged for his part in the conspiracy to blow up the British parliament.
hump day ∼ the middle of the work week.
July Drive (Canada Day, July 1) ∼ a day when fishermen and their families decorate their boats with flags and have a picnic to remember the Newfoundland Regiment’s casualties at Beaumont Hamel.
lady day ∼ An August catch of cod was brought in at the end of the summer fishing season and its money, two or three dollars from each fisherman, was used to build the Catholic cathedral.
mi-careme day ∼ a celebration by Newfoundland’s French Acadians similar to mummering.
Orangeman’s Day (July 12) ∼ a parade once held on St. Stephen’s Day by Orangemen to commemorate William of Orange’s defeat of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
paddy’s broom (March 18) ∼ the day after St. Patrick’s Day when a storm is expected (equinoctial gales) due to the sun crossing the equator about that time.
pet day ∼ an exceptionally fine day.
pod (pog) auger days ∼ bygone days, earlier times to act carefree.
pot days ∼ Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
Red Friday ∼ a day when citizens are encouraged to wear red in support of Canadian troops overseas.
Regatta Day ∼ when boat races are held on Quidi Vidi Lake the first Wednesday in August, if the weather is agreeable.
rinding time ∼ early spring when the sap runs in fir trees. Then a fir tree’s bark is easily removed and used for roofing and covering.
scale day ∼ the period at the end of the day when wood at a logging site was scaled or measured.
scravel day ∼ the final workday of the week.
Sheila’s Brush ∼ a heavy snowfall around March 18.
Solomon Gosse’s birthday (pot day) ∼ days when a boiled dinner (beef, cabbage, vegetables, and duff) is served.
Teak (Teague) Day ∼ On January 6, children dressed up in old clothes like a mummer (janny, ownsook, fool). They took a stick and went about cracking everyone they saw who was outside and not wearing a piece of green ribbon.
up-sitting day ∼ On the tenth day after giving birth, a mother sat up.
• Buttons were cut off waistcoats and shirts of corpses and the clothes tacked with thread, for it is written in the Bible: “. . . whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19; 18:18.)
• Blankets were draped over mirrors in a room where a corpse was laid out. Mourners were afraid that the corpse would take the spirit of a person reflected in the mirrors. They were also afraid that the dead person could leave his ghost behind in a mirror.
• There must be three sunrises before a Christian corpse is buried.
• Funerals once had the markings of weddings. A couple of young people would go around a community and invite relatives to the funeral. Pallbearers wore a white flier (band) around their caps or on their right arms. Women close to the deceased wore black veils down over their heads to their waists. Names of people to attend the funeral, beginning with the closest family relatives, and then the more distant members, would be read out before the procession from the house to the church began.
• Upstairs in St. Mark’s Church in Bareneed a carriage hearse leans on its rails. It was once drawn by a horse to where the dead person was waking in a house. The coal-black carriage with white rungs “stayed” the coffin with seven fastening hooks. When the horse and hearse leading the funeral procession passed by homes, blinds were “drawn” out of respect for the dead. Those who left their blinds up could be stricken with blindness. (There are stories of people who became blind after leaving up their blinds.) The blinds in the house of the deceased were kept down for up to a year. After six months of mourning some people lifted their blinds halfway.
breast piece ∼ a square cloth with a sacred inscription placed on the chest of the deceased, and tied with a string around the neck. The cloth was trimmed in white silk ribbon with a white Cross above the letters IHS (In Hoc Signo: I have suffered. In this sign thou shall conquer).
dead as a dick ∼ meaning quite dead.
dead cart or wagon ∼ hearse.
death boxes ∼ long wooden sea chests used for sailors who died at sea and were brought home for burial.
death kit ∼ Candles and holy water were kept in the house to be ready for the laying out of the dead and for the protection of souls on a journey to the afterlife.
flier ∼ headdress or band worn by a mourner.
god-be-merciful ∼ a crooked stem clay (TD) pipe and tobacco supplied to smokers at a wake.
habit ∼ a burial garment, black for men and brown for women, worn from shoulders to feet.
jigging veil ∼ A relict (widow) wore a black veil after the funeral of her husband to show that she was now available.
keen ∼ At traditional Irish wakes, mourners spoke of a deceased person’s good deeds in a wailing (keening) voice.
knobler ∼ a hearse.
memory ∼ a linen or cloth sampler with the deceased person’s vital statistics embroidered on it.
memory card ∼ a printed card requesting prayer for the person deceased.
mounting ∼ coffin ribbon (heavier than tinfoil) edged in black or gold.
overbearers (topbearers) ∼ mourners who carried the pall (a white sheet with a black Cross sewn on it) over the coffin in a funeral procession.
poor ∼ Someone who is deceased is referred to as poor so-and-so. stay up ∼ to sit by a body all night.
stroud (shroud) ∼ a yard of cloth with Crosses cut into the corners. It was used to cover the shoulders and face of a corpse. The part covering the face was cut in diamond-shaped holes.
wake ∼ to sit with a corpse “waking” until the funeral. walk-before ∼ a person who walks in front of a coffin.
white weepers ∼ mourning bands on mourners’ sleeves.
window coffin ∼ A coffin that could not fit through the door of a house was taken out through a window.
When I was growing up, it was easy to tell if a person was Catholic or Protestant by their Christian name or by their surname, except maybe for a few surnames like Kennedy, pronounced Kennerdy or Kenday, a surname which straddled both religions.
My aunt Elsie once remarked, “You’ve named your son Michael. Sure that’s a Catholic name. Protestants don’t name their children Michael.”
I looked at her and smiled. “Michael,” I reminded her, “is a Bible name, and Michael is named after an archangel” (not that I expected him to grow wings and act like an archangel).
Something my aunt Elsie had not thought about was that her father was christened Jacob – a Jewish name.
blood of a bitch ∼ Protestant term for Catholics.
cradle Catholic ∼ someone born in a Catholic family.
Fenians/mad dogs ∼ a derogatory name for Irishmen. full gospel ∼ Pentecostals apply this term to their faith.
glory fit ∼ a lively show of religion.
goddie ∼ a member of a church who is casual about his religion.
harper ∼ a Protestant name for an Irish Roman Catholic.
horse protestant ∼ a derogatory name by some Roman Catholics for Protestants.
jockabaun (jacobin) ∼ a derogatory name by some Protestants for Catholics.
meeting house ∼ 1. the Methodist church in Newfoundland. 2. a Quaker house in the United States.
micks ∼ Protestant nickname for Catholics.
nell-o-jok ∼ heathen.
nicodemus ∼ a person who changes his religion stripes (a turncoat).
Orange Catholic ∼ 1. a Catholic who married a Protestant. 2. a Catholic who supported a Protestant political figure.
paddies ∼ Irish Catholics.
palatines ∼ Methodists.
papist (popist) ∼ a Catholic.
plaster saint ∼ a goody-goody who is of no use to anyone.
publics ∼ Protestant children from a public school nicknamed by
Catholic children.
redbellies ∼ a name given to Protestants by Catholics.
ronk ∼ people steeped in their religion to the point of being prejudiced.
swaddler ∼ a Methodist held in scorn.
turn ∼ a religious conversion.