An Old Christmas Day tradition on the north coast of Labrador is now the subject of a haunting National Film Board short by Jennie Williams.
Nalujuk Night is celebrated in Labrador coastal communities with a Moravian background.
NL folklorist Dale Jarvis says the tradition is quite unlike anything else celebrated in the province during the Christmas season.
The Nalujuit were frightening strangers, dressed all in furs and often wearing masks, who would come into the community at night over the sea ice, carrying big sticks.
Jarvis says the Nalujuit were good and bad.
Sometimes they’d chase children around and the kids would have to sing a song proving they had been good. If the children were good they would get a gift, but if they were bad, they might get a tap with the stick.
