Becoming an Honorary Newfoundlander

If you visit Newfoundland, you will most assuredly get a chance to become an Honorary Newfoundlander. The ceremony can pop up almost anywhere- from the deck of a whale-watch boat to (in our case) a tiny town of only 400 souls.

Warming Up…

The occasion may vary with the setting. On a whale-watch boat, the captain might suddenly bullhorn an invitation to all who want to participate. In our case, though, we were treated like royalty on land. Port Union’s residents brought a complete potluck dinner to their meeting hall, where we rubbed elbows and chowed down… with live music by the local band:

After dinner, we pushed back the tables for the arrival of our master of ceremonies. Since it was a very rainy afternoon, he ran straight into the building without even a “How do you do?” How rude:

Then to begin our transformation to Honorary Newfoundlanderhood, we had to dress like Newfoundlanders. Some went all-in and put their hoods up:

Though this lowly photo doesn’t do it justice, we next learned to talk like Newfoundlanders. We could optionally learn a polite phrase or one that makes sailors blush. We chose the latter:

Then Really Warming Up…

Next- and this was important to make it through the step that follows- we drank like Newfoundlanders, with just a sip (to start) of the country’s famous Screech Rum. It’s quite good actually (but Coke or Pepsi was available if preferred):

And then came the most important part. Like Iceland, Newfoundland depended for its existence on cod fishing. But in 1992, that all crashed to a near-halt under a protective fishing moratorium. Both countries still fish (often strictly for personal consumption), and now depend more on tourism.

So we couldn’t become Honorary You-Know-What’s without kissing a cod! (Fortunately, it’s usually frozen.):

And in the last (and longest) step, we capped off the evening by learning to dance like Newfoundlanders. Individual success depended on whether one went back for more Screech, and how well one could still move afterward (the townsfolk gave us plenty of space):

Some Thoughts…

Though small, the town of Port Union is most famous for three things:

• In 1908, the first fishermens’ union in the world began there.
• It’s apparently Canada’s only union-built town.
• And in 2008, a University of Oxford scientist found a puzzling fossilized sea creature on nearby shores. The Haootia quadriformis fossil is a staggering 560 million years old, and oddly, exhibits characteristics of both animals and plants. It is now thought to be the ancestor of jellyfish and corals…and the earliest known earthly instance of muscle tissue in what was becoming an animal. After the discovery, university teams returned to Port Union each year for further research. And the young members of its 2018 crew shared our event.

Newfoundland is an unusually fascinating and beautiful place. It was made all the more enjoyable by its exceptionally welcoming people. If you ever get a chance to go, don’t forget your camera (mine was a Panasonic DMC-ZS100 point-and-shoot). And kiss the cod!

–Dave Powell is a Westford, Mass. writer and avid amateur photographer.

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