Christmas, Mikmaq, and Glooscape

Glooscap Statue in Mikmaq Museum, Truro

In the northern hemisphere, there are some people quite open in ‘learning’ and ‘sharing’ culture. They are indigenous people in North America. One of their group named Mikmaq, they live in maritime Canada.

Mikmaq believes to existence of Glooscape in the past, the first human was created out of a bolt of lightening in the sand and remains a figure that appears in many of the Mi’kmaq legends. These legends are stories that are passed down from generation to generation and tell of the Mi’kmaq culture.

Carolyn Girard from The Catholic Register in his article 'Mi'kmaq keep the faith for 400 years' said, "The traditional stories, myths and legends of the Mi’kmaq originate with books published in the late 1800s by a Nova Scotia Baptist missionary clergyman, Silas Tertius Rand. Rand was an accomplished linguist and became fluent in Mi’kmaq. The stories Rand documented were all told to him in Mikmaq, which he then translated and wrote down in English. To increase their accuracy, he then read the translated stories back to the storyteller".

Glooscap’s wondrous powers are impressive throughout a number of the Mikmaq legends.  As demonstrated in many legends, Glooscap even had the power to shape the environment around him.

“The next day [a] young man solicits the loan of Glooscap’s canoe. Glooscap says, “I will lend it to you willingly, if you will only bring it home again…” The young adventurer promises faithfully that he will bring the canoe back in due time, and the two young men go down to the shore to make ready for their journey. They look round in vain for the kweedun (“canoe”); there is no such thing to be seen.  There is a small rocky island near the shore with trees growing on it, but there is no canoe. Glooscap tells them this island is his kweedun. They go on board, set sail, and find the floating island very manageable as a canoe. It goes like magic….”  (Rand, 1893, p.94)

Since the late 1800s, many authors became entranced by the stories of the Mi’kmaq and with this increase in awareness Glooscap’s accomplishments grew. Yet he still embodies the fundamental attribute of wisdom and hope.

On June 24, 1610 Mi’kmaq Grand Chief Henri Membertou, hoping to solidify relations with Nova Scotia French settlers, became the first native Canadian baptized into the Catholic Church. He was joined that day by 20 family members and within 50 years almost the entire Mi’kmaq nation had become Christians.

Roy Macgregor in his article 'From Zeus to Glooscap, myth touches the Games', he wrote, "Joseph Sylliboy is a Mi'kmaq centre interpreter who can recite the Glooscap stories from memory. He heard them all his life: One stroke of lightning forming Glooscap from the mud of the Bay of Fundy ; a second stroke of lightning giving Glooscap life; the third stroke of lightning setting him free to wander the Mi'kmaq world".

"Glooscap isn't really looked at as a god," Mr. Sylliboy says, "or even as a prophet like Jesus. He's more a teacher." Perhaps not a god, but the lightning bolts are as close a connection to the original Olympics as the flame itself.

The original Olympics - the very first thought to have been held in 776 BC - were held to honour Zeus, master of the lightning bolts that may or may not have turned the Bay of Fundy mud into mighty Glooscap.

Other opinion from Mikmaq people said, the reason why Mikmaq accepted Christian because of some similarities about ‘concept’ Jesus and Glooscape. That is why Mikmaq people celebrating christmas until now, beside influence of european culture.

Even if christian keep trying to encourage their value into Mikmaq people. Some people still maintain their old culture well, including spiritual rituals from their anchestors, thousand of years ago before christian came.

Sweat lodge, is their old prayer ritual, where they thank and pray to the Creator for the good of them and their predecessors. In this ritual some people get into a lodge in which live coals are heating the lodge temperature. Heat temperature range between 80-110o C. Inside the lodge, they prayed together, a kind of meditation, closer to the creator.

This ritual is still preserved to this day and they are also open to anyone who wants to try. In the midst of a spiritual crisis in North America, it is like an anomaly that they had a great spirit in the search for spirituality. Even one of them said to a Muslim, "I want to see your prayers".

That is only one of their cultures. The other cultures of Mikmaq are also conserved neatly. They have some heritage centre. One of them is a Mikmaq Museum ; Glooscap Heritage Centre (GHC) in Truro, Nova Scotia.

GHC look like really try to perceive what is real meaning of museum. The English "museum" comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as "museums" (or rarely, "musea"). It is originally from the Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseion), which denotes a place or temple dedicated to the Muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), and hence a building set apart for study and the arts.

Muse, in English means 'contemplate'. Then, museum could mean a place contemplate the history. Learning, more than just receiving, but also thinking; muses about its value

GHC has a variety of methods to transfer the value of the history contained in their museum. Mik'maq Museum contains the first nation history of maritime Canada. They make a variety of games and attractions that are tailored to the needs and types of visitors. In addition they also present a variety of workshops as advanced levels for visitors who want to learn more about their culture. Good awareness of Canadian in learning history, also helping Mikmaq in promoting it. In 1998, 32.3% of Canadian already visited the museum (Hill Strategies Research Inc., 2003).

GHC also opens opportunities for youth to be volunteer in helping conservation of their culture. They do partnership with Canada World Youth and making some youth from all over the world doing volunteering overthere.

In christmas, mikmaq and youth volunteers celebrate remembrance of hero – Glooscape and Jesus – with family and friends. –All my relation-.