Guns, parades and superstitions: A host of forgotten New Year's traditions in N.L.
Gun salutes and parades were among the historical ways to welcome the new year
Over the past 20 years, Newfoundland and Labrador's unique Christmas traditions have seen a bit of a renaissance, and people across the province now celebrate the holidays by dressing up as mummers, toasting the season on Tibb's Eve or mixing up a bucket of boozy Christmas slush.
Historically, though, colourful customs weren't reserved for Christmastime. The province once had just as many unusual ways to welcome the new year.
Shooting in the New Year
In a time before televised countdowns, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians marked the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve with a volley of gunshots.
Sometimes called a feu de joie — French for "fire of joy" — a gun salute was a common way to welcome dignitaries and celebrate special occasions in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Almost every rural household would have had a rifle. It was an essential tool for the subsistence work of hunting and sealing, as well as for protecting livestock from predators like wolves and foxes.
Apart from its practical function, a rifle was also a handy way of making a joyful noise.
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians fired their guns to celebrate taking the Christmas pudding out of the oven, the end of a wedding ceremony and the departure of newlyweds on their honeymoon.
On New Year's Eve, the custom was to fire two shots at the toll of midnight: one to drive out the old year and a second to ring in the new.
Noisemakers have been part of New Year's festivities for millenniums.
In medieval China, firecrackers and fireworks were set off to keep evil spirits at bay during the precarious transition from one year to the next.
Beyond its ghost-busting value, making a loud noise at midnight on New Year's Eve is a way to express happiness and to let the whole community know the new year has arrived.
Throwing poverty out the door
Some Newfoundland families had their own tradition for securing luck in the new year.
Storyteller Beverley Kane's mother taught her to toss breadcrumbs out the door on New Year's Eve while reciting a short phrase in Irish Gaelic.
The ritual was meant to banish any poverty from the old year and welcome prosperity in the new.
In an interview with Irish folklorist Michael Fortune, Kane described how one year she forgot to toss out the breadcrumbs and the very next day discovered she was out of butter. She had to borrow some from a neighbour to make her New Year's Day dinner.
It's an old superstition that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you'll find yourself doing for the rest of the year, so borrowing was bad luck indeed.
Orangemen's parades
New Year's Day is one of the few secular holidays in our calendar. Still, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians managed to squeeze some sectarianism into the day's celebrations.
In the 19th century, the province was home to a variety of fraternal organizations — social and charitable clubs for men with a common interest or background.
Most of these societies were founded along religious lines. There was the Star of the Sea Association for the Catholics, the Loyal Orange Association and the Society of United Fishermen for the Protestants.
The first day of the new year was a popular choice for the Protestant clubs' annual parades.
British Protestants, nicknamed "Orangemen" after the Protestant King William of Orange, normally commemorated their heritage on July 12, Orangemen's Day.
Mid-July, though, was the peak of the cod season and an inconvenient time for rural fishers to take a holiday. Mid-winter, on the other hand, with its respite from the work of fishing, hunting, planting and sealing, offered a perfect opportunity for a celebration.
So, on New Year's Day, the members of many Protestant organizations would don orange sashes and march through their communities before gathering for a church service and a "time" or party.
A push for safer celebrations
Many of these traditions fell into disuse due to concerns over public safety.
By the late 19th century, officials and members of the press were calling for stiffer regulations around when guns could be fired in public.
Falling bullets can cause injuries, the sound of a gunshot can spook a horse and a tipsy gunman who's spent the evening toasting the holiday is liable to shoot off his own hand.
In January 1882, the Newfoundland government passed a law that "any person firing any gun, pistol or other firearm in any city, town or settlement in this island, for the purpose of creating a noise or disturbance … shall, for every such offence, pay a penalty not exceeding $20."
The threat of fines didn't have an immediate effect.
A notice from two magistrates published in a St. John's newspaper in December 1886 said that gun salutes on Christmas and New Year's Eve had actually been increasing in the city. The notice concluded with a warning to readers that the statute would be "henceforward rigidly enforced."
Officials also discouraged Orangemen's parades because of the threat of sectarian violence.
During a parade in Harbour Grace on Dec. 26, 1883, the marching Orangemen were confronted by a large group of Catholics from Riverhead. In the brawl that ensued, three men were killed and a dozen more injured.
After that, New Year's Day parades were occasionally cancelled for fear of rioting, and they eventually went out of fashion as religious fraternities declined in popularity.
Today, most Newfoundlanders and Labradors welcome the New Year the same way as everyone else in North America, with fireworks, midnight kisses and doubtful resolutions.
Though our customs may have changed, they still express our wishes for fun and fellowship on New Year's Eve and for luck and prosperity in the year to come.
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