Newfoundland and Labrador is well known for its tradition of Mummering or Jannying over the 12 Days of Christmas – but the tradition was actually outlawed in the province until relatively recently.

People dress up in disguises, usually oversized clothes with their faces covered, and go around house-to-house to partake in merriment.

Local folklorist Dale Jarvis says while the tradition we know today is all in good fun, in the 1800s it was outlawed, when those with ill-intent took advantage of dressing in disguise.

He says Christmas was a time of year when long-standing grudges and political or religious disputes would boil over.

Jarvis says things took a particularly dark turn in Bay Roberts in 1860.

When a newly-married Isaac Mercer was out with his in-laws and was set upon by a group of Mummers who bludgeoned him to death with an axe.

That led to the outlawing of Mummering, a law that remained on the books until the 1990s.

Read more on the history of mummering and violence in this research paper by Joy Fraser.