Bringing Newfoundland to East Kildonan

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2020 (1089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What can you do when there is a pandemic and you can’t travel to your favourite place?  Bring your favourite place to where you are.  

That’s what we did recently for my friend Elizabeth’s 16th birthday party.  

She was feeling homesick for her native Newfoundland, especially since she was unable to travel home for spring break or the upcoming summer holidays, so we brought Newfoundland to my garage.

We invited a group of 10 people (the maximum allowed at the time), and partied Newfoundland-style.

I Googled the town of Trinity, where Elizabeth is from, and my daughter and I went to work painting posters of Trinity landmarks for decoration. We are not professional painters but it’s the thought that counts. (For the record, Elizabeth was able to recognize what we painted.)

We cut out fish, we borrowed a lobster trap, we hung streamers to look like fish netting, and we had a potluck seafood buffet.

Those of you who have been to Newfoundland or who are familiar with the hit musical Come from Away will know what it means to be ‘Screeched in.’

It’s a Newfoundland tradition that involves drinking a shot of Screech (rum), reciting a verse and kissing a codfish. By doing this you become an honorary Newfoundlander, and this is how we started our party.  

Now that we were all ‘Newfoundlanders,’ we had to learn to speak like them, and quickly picked up sayings such as “Who knit ya?” (where are you from, or who are your parents?) or ‘be there the once’ (I’ll be there right away).

We played kitchen party music by Elizabeth’s favourite Newfoundland artists such as Alan Doyle (Great Big Sea), The Once, The Irish Descendants, et al.

The playlist inspired me to reach out to a couple of these artists to ask for birthday greetings, and let me tell you they delivered.

My birthday gift to Elizabeth ended up being a personalized video of Alan Doyle singing Happy Birthday to her, and a personal video from The Once singing Happy Birthday as well. We all cried our eyes out at these special videos. (If you ever want to ask a favour from an artist, do it during a pandemic when they have some time on their hands.)

Party games followed, where I kept social distancing in mind and made sure to have personal supplies of everything so that no one touched something that someone else had touched.  In case they did, hand sanitizer was on hand (yes, pun intended).

Our trip to Newfoundland was a success.  We all needed a fun night to get together after being cooped up for so long. We will definitely travel to another fun place for our next party. Planning a theme party was so much fun and gave us a project during a pandemic. Happy 16th birthday, Elizabeth!

Wendy Hrynkiw is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email her at wendyhrynkiw@shaw.ca