I'm an archivist. Like all archivists I have a tendency to find some, let's say, interesting stuff while working.
Considering that I work in a folklore archive, Memorial University's Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA), that interesting stuff can get pretty strange.
Did I mention we're also a classy bunch?
Folklore is notoriously difficult to define. If you were to ask ten different folklorists for a definition, you'd get ten different answers. According to the American Folklore Society, folklore is:
the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioral example. Every group with a sense of its own identity shares, as a central part of that identity, folk traditions–the things that people traditionally believe (planting practices, family traditions, and other elements of worldview), do (dance, make music, sew clothing), know (how to build an irrigation dam, how to nurse an ailment, how to prepare barbecue), make (architecture, art, craft), and say (personal experience stories, riddles, song lyrics). As these examples indicate, in most instances there is no hard-and-fast separation of these categories, whether in everyday life or in folklorists’ work.
A common saying around MUNFLA is,"You never know what you may find!" On a daily basis, we share among ourselves the most obscure, obscene, obnoxious, objectionable and down right outrageous bits of folklore. When I can, I like to share these oddities with you!
While searching through our "Frightening Figures Index" I happened upon what may either be the best or worst scary figure ever. I present to you, Crustman!
Courtesy of Memorial University's Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA)
Much like the bogey-man, Crustman (aka Crust man or Crust-man) is an "undesirable" character who steals children who don't eat all their food, particularly the crusts of bread.
Why he cares, I don't know.
Crustman, more terrifying than a hundred root cellars!!
Courtesy of Memorial University's Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA)
Pictured above: this archivist's imagining of Crustman
Honestly, Crustman is pretty lame as far as frightening figures go (have you ever heard of The Webber!?) That being said, I do admire the lengths some parents went in order to get their kids to eat.
Even if Crust Man does sound like the WORST Batman villain ever.
I’m a Newfoundlander and as a proud Newfoundlander Bonfire Night is about burning shit. Burning the shit right outta shit. You name it, we’ll burn it. From tires to your neighbour’s outhouse, historically, nothing is safe from the bonny fires of November 5th. Some of you may be wondering, “Hey, what is this ‘Bonfire Night’ you speak of? I also like to burn stuff!”
Who doesn’t?
So here’s the deal: Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on November 5th, primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of November 5th, 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, also known as the House of Lords.
The Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy by a group of English Catholics to assassinate the Protestant King James I of England and replace him with a Catholic head of state.
The plot, despite it's badass name, was a total failure.
But King James was so stoked by not being exploded that he allowed the public to celebrate his survival with bonfires, so long as they were "without any danger or disorder". Many fires included an effigy of Fawkes, or "the Guy", as it would come to be known.
Collecting tires for Bonfire Night
From: "Bonfire Night in Brigus", A video documenting the preparation and celebration of Bonfire Night in Brigus, Newfoundland. Directed by Catherine Schwoeffermann
Some Newfoundlanders grew up knowing all about Guy Fawkes. Some of us didn’t know the occasion had anything to do with him until we were old enough to learn about it in school. And as a Canadian kid, I thought it was Guy “Fox”, because Terry Fox, of course.
"Weatherman ruins Everything for Everyone"
Daily News, 1962-11-06. Page 3
Bonfire Night isn’t as popular as it once was, mostly due to bans on open fires in many Newfoundland communities. What was once an opportunity for kids to work together to build a huge fire (THAT COULD SINGE THE BEARD OF ZEUS HIMSELF!!) has been mostly relegated to organized fires put together by municipalities. These events are more likely an attempt to deter random fires than maintain the Bonfire Night tradition.
For me, and many Newfoundland kids, Bonfire Night was an opportunity to roast marshmallows in front of a fire the size of a house. Boy, was that terrifying.
Good times though.
"Bonfire Night in Brigus",
A videodocumenting the preparation and celebration of BonfireNight in Brigus,
