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Show EAT REMAINS OF CANDLES Christmas Services Among the Eskimos Eski-mos of Labrador Part Most En-Joyed En-Joyed by the Children. Somebody has said that when the world was being made the Creator gathered up all the waste material "he had left over and made Labrador out of it. Some people say the Creator never intended it to be inhabited. But inhabited it is with a sturdy, taciturn band of Eskimos, who, thanks to the Moravian missionaries who have penetrated pene-trated to that country, celebrate Christmas in their own peculiar way. As service time in the church draws near all the inhabitants, old and young, the men on one side and the women on the other, are waiting in eager expectation. It is quite dark by four o'clock and the bell rings. All come trooping in clad in the best clothes they can muster. No one stays at home from these services unless he is sick or lame, and whenever it is possible sleighs are used to bring these disabled ones to church. For the little children the happiest part of the services comes later when each child receives a lighted candle, symbolizing the light of the world. Each candle stands in a white turnip which serves as a candlestick. Most of the candles are made from deer tallow which the Eskimos bring to the missionaries. After the services the children eat not only the turnip, but what is left of the candle as well. One year only about ten persons, mostly men, could come from the nearest island. The ice had been driven together, and rather than miss the Christmas service they had risked their lives in crossing over on that moving, heaving, broken ice to the mainland. Then they had to climb the mountains and walk through the deep snow until they reached the mis Bion station after twenty-three hours of danger and a fearfully exhausting march through the snow. How happy they were to be in time to celebrate the Christmas festival in the house of their God! About siJ days later, when the ice had formed all the rest of the people came, bul oh! so sad and downhearted. Like little children they told the mission aries their tale of sorrow. They de scribed how sad they all had been when they found that it would be im possible to come to the mission sta tion for the Christmas service. |