New year arctic feast and jigging

This is my first community event in Inuvik and it was unforgettable. The feast began at 5 and everyone is free to join. The foods were all prepared and cooked by volunteers in the community. The amount of food was shockingly huge and delicious. We also got to pack the remaining food back home too. After the feast there were games for all age groups. I participated in the women 16-49 musical chair competition. I though I had a chance to win until we all got blindfolded to find the chair on the floor… we all had a good laugh though! Next was a traditional dance contest called jigging. This is a duet dance that focuses on footwork to fast country music. It reminds me of the Irish dance but with more subtlety. To prepare dance floor, they sprinkled some yellowish powder on the floor to make it more slippery so the dancers can shuffle around. I will start practicing so I can jig in the next event! The celebration and dancing continued till 1am. After the countdown, many people shook hands with us and wished us happy new year, even though we are strangers. This is by far the warmest new year celebration I’ve ever had!