Article 4 How to Love the Arctic Sun? With Ceremony - Folk Tales and Their Cultural Implications

LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/featured_articles/990120wednesday.html

Lindsey Tebaldi

Location: Iglooik, Canadian Arctic

Quote: "The day the sun finally emerges...was one of the most important days of the year." "Then the outsiders came from the south with their crosses, and their schools, and their strange notions of chopping up the day into small pieces called minutes, and celebrations stopped. Eventually with electric lights, alarm clocks, and calanders, the 'great darkness' meant nothing."

Anecdote: Many of our own traditions have lost their meaning, much like the celebration of the great darkness. Christmas no longer represents church, and sacrafice, but getting presents and new toys. Easter is no longer about christ it is about recieving candy. We have replaced honored historic figures, and events with characters from our imagination and greed.

Vocabulary:

• Hamelet- a community of people smaller than a village

Storyline: Ancient Traditions are lost to budding technology and modern civilization. Younger generations no longer take part in older traditions, due to these advances. Elders were uncomfertable with the loss of their celebration, that they slowly brought it back and re-educated the youth on their heritage, and traditions.

Todd Thompson and James Kane

Location- Iglooik,Northwest Territories

quote- "The day the sun finally emerges from the horizon like the nostrils of a bearded seal poking out of the ocean ice was once the most important day of the year for Igloolik's Eskimos, who now prefer to be known as Inuit."

Vocab

Inuit- gloolik eskimos

illumination- a supply of light

hamlet- a small town or village

constellation- any of various groups of stars

caribou-large reindeer native to northern North America.

Storyline- After the seven long weeks of having " The Great Darkness " the inuits celebrate the coming of the sun by lighting sunsoap lamps and celebrating it in the Gymnasium.