Anonymity and Strangers: Three versions of the unknown in Newfoundland Christmas visiting

Daily life in Newfoundland outport communities was often noted for the frequency and ease of visitation between households. The amount of visiting was heightened during the Christmas season with the arrival of mummers, janneys and night-singers. These three events each contained elements of disguise and anonymity by masking the identity of participants in distinctive ways: costuming of performers in the Mummers’ Play, disguising for the identity-guessing-game of janneys, and the late- night carolling of the night-singers. Participants in the events were known members of the community, they were not strangers to the households, yet the anonymity of participants was an important part of each event. Communities and individuals may have been creating liminal space in which to explore cultural elements expressed in the events which were concerned with the ‘known’ and the ‘unknown’, the ‘safe’ and the ‘dangerous’, the ‘familiar’ and the ‘stranger’. These created liminal spaces by their very nature were flexible arenas involving an increase in social licence, thereby providing venues for expanded social activity to be exercised by communities and individuals within a cloak of anonymity.