Real made-up Newfies

Traditions, self-image, and power

Photo by Leyre on Unsplash

If we stop acting like Newfies, people will stop calling us Newfies.

Two different people.

Two different situations.

Two different issues.

First, Bob Hallett.

Musician.

Entrepreneur.

Or as he put it on Facebook over the Christmas weekend:

There's an argument that I am one of the most NL guys ever - I was the editor of the NL Herald, I played and sang in Great Big Sea, I play the button accordion at a professional level, my family history on the island dates back almost 350 years, and I am one of the few (only?) public figures who speaks in a Kilbride accent.

Then the point:

“I have said this before here but it bears repeating - until a couple of years ago I had never heard of the supposed great NL traditions of Tibb's Eve or Xmas slush.”

A couple of days after he first posted that, Bob had almost 300 people comment and another three-hundred-odd “like” it or something along the same lines. That’s a lot of people. Most agreed with Bob that all the noise about Tibb’s Eve - another name for December 23rd - and “slush” as Great Newfoundland and Labrador Cultural Traditions is odd since they are not really all that traditional. One person said that working on George Street for 20 years they’d never heard of Tibb’s Eve until lately.

So what gives?