Christmas Igloo 

Photos by G-M. Rousseliere, O.M.I.

Communities take time during the holidays to celebrate together, but to do that there needs to be a location large enough to fit everyone. This article from 1956 Winter issue of The Beaver Magazine shows how an Inuit community came together to build a Christmas igloo. Click to view the article in the original format.

At Pelly Bay, which is about 1,400 miles due north of Fort William, the Eskimos in the winter of 1955 built a huge k’aggek or community igloo in which to celebrate Christmas. Four family-size snowhouses had been built in a circle, and these were used as a base on which the great snow dome was raised to a height of eighteen feet. In the centre of the circle was a community snow porch on which the builders stood to reach the top of the dome, and which was demolished when the work was done.

Here Midnight Mass was celebrated by Father Vandevelde—the stone mission chapel being too small to hold the crowd—and afterwards there was feasting and fun.




Some idea of the size of the great igloo may be gained from the picture on the left, taken after the ceremonies were over. One of the base igloos has been closed in again, and two Eskimos poke their heads through holes they have made in the dome. 









 

Dominic Tungilik, tallest Eskimo in the region, stands on top of the central porch and inserts the last snow block 18 feet above the floor. 









Plan of the k'aggek, showing how it was built on four snowhousses. The dotted lines represent the central porch and connecting tunnels and the sectors of the family igloos that were cut away to form one big room. "L" denotes a stone lamp, "A" the altar, and "P" the porch for provisions.






Father Vandevelde celebrates Midnight Mass by the light of candles planted in the snow. Many of the congregation remained on the snow platforms of their own igloos surrounding the main part of the "church."











Old Willie Niptayok (whose full-page portrait as a young man appeared in the September 1946 Beaver) dances as he beats the deerskin drum.














Feast after the Mass. The half-dome of two of the supporting igloos can be clearly seen under the snow arches. 








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