Métis oral histories contain many stories of New Year’s celebrations across the Métis Homeland, Sault Ste. Marie is no exception! They tell of Métis going from house to house for cakes and pies, with the sounds of fireworks, gunshots, church bells, and fiddle music ringing in the air, all accompanied by dancing. Métis were so fond of this time of year that they often shared stories with non-Métis authors interested in their community’s history. In the 1920s, for example, Jam

DOWNLOAD THE DIGITAL COLOURING PAGE TO PRINT AT HOME A long time ago, Métis families celebrated New Year’s in the most fun and lively way! After a quiet Christmas, New Year’s was all about visiting neighbours, eating cakes and pies, dancing to fiddle music, and lighting up the night with fireworks! Everyone joined in—ringing church bells, sharing laughs, and enjoying good food. It was the perfect way to brighten the coldest months of winter and bring the whole community toget

Métis communities across the Homeland have grand celebrations during the winter holiday season. Christmas and New Year’s became particularly important holidays in Métis communities after the merging of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company in 1821, when HBC Governor George Simpson, imposed new rules to reduce partying among lively Métis workers: “The new governor was much less enthusiastic about the fur traders' love of entertainment, believing that it interrup

Jigging is a well-known Métis tradition and form of cultural expression. Members of historic Métis communities are consistently identified participating in celebratory gatherings where dancing a Métis jig was a main event. For example, a visitor to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Timiskaming Post in 1873 described the dances of “half-breed” participants on Christmas Day, writing: “There were several pretty half-breed girls present…Their dance was a kind of jig with a mixture of Sc