Town gears up for a very festive season
Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Qikiqtarjuaq (Dec 18/00) - A lot can be said for Christmas traditions, especially when they have a solid run of 20 years and show no signs of slowing down.
Such is the case in Qikiqtarjuaq as a nine-member crew gears up to run nine straight days of non-stop events for the 20th year.
Ok, they do stop, but only for the afternoons and that's only because the night before doesn't end until 6 a.m. and the morning games start at 10 a.m.
"We start at 10 a.m. and go until noon and break until 6 p.m. when we start again with games until 11 p.m. After that we have an Inuktitut dance and when that ends we have a modern dance, which usually starts around 1 a.m.," said recreation co-ordinator Adam Smith, who already has plans to take a week off after the Christmas season.
"The last dance doesn't usually end until 6 or 7 in the morning."
The party agenda runs from Dec. 23 until Jan. 1 and all the while the community of Qikiqtarjuaq celebrates in style, with games running simultaneously in two gyms, feasts and nightly dancing.
Christmas Eve starts with an evening church service at 10:30 p.m., followed by fireworks, a 21-gun salute by the local Rangers and a snowmobile parade.
It starts all over again on Christmas Day with the biggest feast of the year.
This year, hunters from the community travelled all of the way to Iqaluit to hunt caribou for the feast. They took back 22.
Smith says the festivities wrap-up with a giant bingo.
"Everyone has to bring a gift to participate in the bingo, we usually end up having more than 400, and whoever wins the bingo gets to open all of the presents."
