Comment: Celebrating the Christmas Season ‘Back in the day’
- Paul Chartrand | December 30, 2014
‘So what time is midnight mass this year’?
That was only one of the silly jokes that was common in the days of my youth growing up in the Métis community of St Laurent, Manitoba. You can see how much things have changed. Nowadays it is common for ‘midnight mass’ to be celebrated at all sorts of hours on Christmas Eve. What have we lost? What have we gained from all the changes in our ways and our society over time?
I don’t pretend to know the answer to that. But because things have changed so much I will try to recall some of those things that were part of celebrating the Christmas season, which included, in our Catholic community, New Years Eve and the Feast of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) or La fete di Rois on 6 January or Sunday after New Year’s Day.
It was midnight mass that kicked everything off. The whole community would pile into sleds or cabooses and head to the old church in the north end of the village that stretched for about three miles along a road one mile from the shore of the frozen lake.
After mass, people returned home and enjoyed a nice late snack, featuring ‘tourtieres’ or meat pies. I recall a good one about the time when as a young teacher back in my home community in the 60s I shot a jackrabbit and gave it to my aunt who ground it up and made tourtieres from it. There were a couple of ‘city-slicker’ boarders, also teachers, at my aunt’s place. They were not told what the meat was.
For a young Métis child, Christmas morning was by far the most exciting morning of the year! Presents in colourful wrapping were placed under the Christmas tree. I remember best the small brown paper bags that were placed under and around the tree: one for each child in the house. There were twelve children in my family so there was quite a line-up of bags even when some siblings were not home or had not been born. Each and every bag contained the exact same things. I recall at least part of the list: one mandarin orange, two or three ‘snowball’ chocolates, the ones with white coconut on them, hard candy, including the ribbon-like striped kind. Oh, and a sugar cane.
I have had fun checking with my contemporaries about their own Christmas customs. One common custom of ours was the making of ‘la pouchine’ which is derived from the French for ‘pudding’ and according to the internet originates from British puddings. La pouchine was boiled in a bag. Some of the main ingredients included suet, raisins, flour and whatever. I suspect some folks still eat it. Yum.
One thing I was not too keen on when I was a little boy is the ladies kissing one and all to wish them a Happy New Year. The only time you kissed people was upon first meeting in the new year, whenever that was. Growing up and travelling around I have noticed that in Eastern Canada and some European places, men and women kiss on two cheeks to say hello. And they do it at any time of year, never mind at New Year’s. One more recollection in a deep corner of my dried-up old memory glands is that some ladies would wish adults a happy new year ‘and a good death at the end of your days.’ Now there is a good wish don’t you think?
At midnight on New Year’s, you could hear the celebratory shotgun shots around the community. There was no drinking on Christmas but New Year’s was fair game. I remember the huge feasts my grandparents would host for all their descendants which seemed to be most of the villagers. That died with them long ago.
Christmas time has changed so much. One of my friends pokes fun at the bland ‘politically-correct’ greeting: “All the best to you and yours throughout this festive season.”
Merry Christmas to you, wishing also peace and joy throughout the world and a Happy New Year
So what time is midnight mass this year? Six o’clock.
Requiescat in pace: Father Guy Lavallee
A well-known Métis priest from my home community and fellow student at an Oblate residential school in the 1950s died suddenly of illness on 25 October. Following a mass an earlier date at the St Boniface Cathedral, his ashes were buried next to his parents’ graves in the St Laurent cemetery on 4 November.
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