Christmas Games
For decades upon decades, people in Barrow have celebrated the Christmas holiday with Christmas Games, which kick off Christmas Day. There are children's games during the day and adult games at night. The adult games start at 7 pm and usually end around 2 in the morning. The games last until New Year's Eve into New Years. Since I was in NY for Christmas, I didn't get to go to the Christmas Games until the night of December 30. I wasn't really in the mood to go, but I forced myself, knowing this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As the women search for an item, one or two chairs are removed. So there's an element of speed involved. The women start out sitting, the announcer names the item for scavenging, the women run out of their chairs to find the item, and have to return to a seat with the item in hand. When the next item gets announced, the women have to return the item from before, find the new item, and again return to their seats with the new item in hand. It goes on and on until there is only one chair and one winner. First place gets $20, second place $15, and third place $10. What's amazing about this particular Christmas Game is that it involves the audience as they are the ones that are supplying the scavenger hunt items.
Items for scavenging for the women's hunt and the men's hunt included DC sneakers, a penny from the 1960s, a lady wearing nail polish, a key chain with five or more keys, baby mukluks, and a pair of knee-high nylons. At first, as an audience member, I wasn't really participating. I didn't want to relinquish anything I had. But as the game progressed, I did want to contribute. When the item was an old $20 bill, I looked through my wallet. When the item was an Alaska Airlines boarding pass, I pulled one out of my pocket and waved it in the air, but mine wasn't needed.
The women who were playing were ruthless. I saw a younger women slide into the last chair available as an older woman was bending down to sit. The participants would run up and down the bleachers, scramble for the seats, but no one got hurt.
Other games included middle finger pull, foot races, one foot high kick. Participants competed within age groups and then "Married vs. Single." While all of this was going on, people were constantly pouring in and out of the gym, kids were running around the bleachers spilling their artificially colored shaved ice. Out in the hallway, rows and rows of tables were selling all kinds of food – hot dogs, pizza, meat on a stick, pretzels, as well as Native food. For the first time, I tried aluuttagaaq, a dish that consists of pieces of caribou meat in a thick gravy poured over rice. Throughout the evening, various people were calling out selling raffle tickets for an iPod Touch, 50/50, or the cake raffle.
I stayed for a few hours taking everything in, talking to Flossie and her family members who sat by her. I left well before 2 am. For New Year's Eve, the games started after the fireworks display, around 1 am and lasted until 5 pm on New Year's Day. For that night, they were giving away raffle tickets for cash prizes. Every half hour, they did a drawing for either $100 or $200. In order to get a raffle ticket, one had to be over the age of 18 and sober.
To me, what was pretty amazing about the whole thing was the fact that everyone just seemed to enjoy being in a big room together for hours and hours at a time. There was all this commotion and craziness, and at the heart of it was this simple desire to be together during the cold, dark holidays.
Middle Finger PullI arrived at the Ipalook Elementary School 7:30 pm and there was already quite a crowd. When I walked into the gym, there were ladies seated in chairs up front. I went to the bleachers and sat in front of a woman, who I later found out was named Flossie. As soon as I sat down, she nudged me and said I should participate in the scavenger hunt. That's what the women seated in front were about to do – scavenger hunt musical chairs.
As the women search for an item, one or two chairs are removed. So there's an element of speed involved. The women start out sitting, the announcer names the item for scavenging, the women run out of their chairs to find the item, and have to return to a seat with the item in hand. When the next item gets announced, the women have to return the item from before, find the new item, and again return to their seats with the new item in hand. It goes on and on until there is only one chair and one winner. First place gets $20, second place $15, and third place $10. What's amazing about this particular Christmas Game is that it involves the audience as they are the ones that are supplying the scavenger hunt items.
Items for scavenging for the women's hunt and the men's hunt included DC sneakers, a penny from the 1960s, a lady wearing nail polish, a key chain with five or more keys, baby mukluks, and a pair of knee-high nylons. At first, as an audience member, I wasn't really participating. I didn't want to relinquish anything I had. But as the game progressed, I did want to contribute. When the item was an old $20 bill, I looked through my wallet. When the item was an Alaska Airlines boarding pass, I pulled one out of my pocket and waved it in the air, but mine wasn't needed.
The women who were playing were ruthless. I saw a younger women slide into the last chair available as an older woman was bending down to sit. The participants would run up and down the bleachers, scramble for the seats, but no one got hurt.
Other games included middle finger pull, foot races, one foot high kick. Participants competed within age groups and then "Married vs. Single." While all of this was going on, people were constantly pouring in and out of the gym, kids were running around the bleachers spilling their artificially colored shaved ice. Out in the hallway, rows and rows of tables were selling all kinds of food – hot dogs, pizza, meat on a stick, pretzels, as well as Native food. For the first time, I tried aluuttagaaq, a dish that consists of pieces of caribou meat in a thick gravy poured over rice. Throughout the evening, various people were calling out selling raffle tickets for an iPod Touch, 50/50, or the cake raffle.
I stayed for a few hours taking everything in, talking to Flossie and her family members who sat by her. I left well before 2 am. For New Year's Eve, the games started after the fireworks display, around 1 am and lasted until 5 pm on New Year's Day. For that night, they were giving away raffle tickets for cash prizes. Every half hour, they did a drawing for either $100 or $200. In order to get a raffle ticket, one had to be over the age of 18 and sober.
To me, what was pretty amazing about the whole thing was the fact that everyone just seemed to enjoy being in a big room together for hours and hours at a time. There was all this commotion and craziness, and at the heart of it was this simple desire to be together during the cold, dark holidays.
posted by Siapiau | 7:23 PM
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