CHRISTMAS JANNEYING AND EASTER DRINKING - SYMBOLIC INVERSION, CONTINGENCY, AND RITUAL TIME IN COASTAL LABRADOR

This essay examines ritual time in southern Labrador through the notio n of symbolic inversion, focusing specifically on Christmas janneying (mumming) and Easter social drinking. In this paper three questions ar e asked: first, what types of cultural items are inverted and how are they inverted; second, what is the impact of these inversions on the c onstruction of Labradorian time; and finally, how is the notion of sym bolic inversion related to contingency and ritual time? I explore the notion that inversion and contingency are interrelated through their e ffect on temporal order. Inversion transforms order, and it is through this transformation that contingency and change are celebrated and ac commodated.