English to Serbian Other Folklore customs

Perhaps the most controversial non-calendric custom in Newfoundland in recent years is the Screech-In. It is historically related to such traditions as equatorial line-crossing and initiation rites known all over the world. It derives from "honorary Newfoundlanders" rites of the 1940s and pranks played on new sealers going to the ice. The Screech-In came into being in the 1970s when Joe Murphy and Joan Morrissey put together an entertainment at the Bella Vista Country Club in St John's. It included local musical performers and a dress-up skit by which members of the audience were humorously "screeched-in." In later years the Screech-In was widely performed by Myrle Vokey and by employees of the Newfoundland Liquor Commission. Typically, initiates are made to kiss a codfish, drink some Screech (rum) and repeat a semi-dialect, slightly risqué recitation.