Category: Events

A lot of local Dene traditions were lost over the last few hundred years as populations gradually shifted from living on the land to hanging out at home watching Netflix (sometimes not voluntarily). One tradition that seems to have hung around, however, is fire feeding.

I’ve seen this happen a few times now. Everyone stands in a circle around or near a fire to be fed. A few people, usually older men, sing and beat drums. Sometimes a Christian prayer is said, but usually in the local Dene language. The drums are, I believe, locally made from stretched hide of caribou.

Afterwards, everyone (even weird foreign whiteys like me) takes a little (about a pinch of) tobacco, flour, sugar or other granular foodstuff and throws it into the fire. As best as I understand, this means the fire is fed and bad things won’t happen as much and good things will.

I was in Yellowknife recently and had a chance to pop in to the Snow King’s Castle.

Each year a local Santa-Claus-esque guy, his small team of expert craftsmen and their horde of eager but inexpert helpers build a castle out of ice out on the frozen lake. It costs $5 to go in and have a look.

The castle includes a stage for performances on some evenings, and a slide for kids to enjoy. Alas, I was too busy to catch a show while I was in town (“Brrrrr-leseque” was on) and there were too many kids using the slide for me to have a go.

For $5, I’d say it’s worth a look.

Gambling is a major pastime up here. Every week, there are a variety of games going on in town: Bingo, Nevadas, Chase the Ace, Poker, Cribbage… even the ever-popular Hand Games are a form of gambling. Sometimes people will even fly out of town if the Chase the Ace jackpot gets big enough in another community, such as this saga a few months ago in Hay River that resulted in an almost half-million dollar jackpot. All this gambling is organized by the hamlet’s recreation department.