Return of the Sun celebrations

The celebration of the Return of the Sun is the whole reason for me ending up here in Igloolik at this time of year.  So I was quite excited and curious to see what would occur.  In previous years the celebration has taken place on a Saturday, but this year events have been planned for every night this week.  The local film company, Isuma, are filming the festivities, at least in part to promote the event to tourists such as myself.  In previous years a group of "older ladies" from Ontario have attended as part of a guided tour - the group came last year, and are due to come next year, but for some reason aren't here this time.  So there are some tourists!    The Return of the Sun celebrations started at 7pm in the hall of the elementary school.  The whole community formed a big circle around three female Elders who were sat on the floor, each tending a qulliq, which is the traditional stone lamp burning seal oil.  First there were short speeches in English and Inuktitut by the Mayor.  Then a couple of children blew out the qulliq lamps.  During the darkness several couples did some throat singing - standing less than a foot apart with arms interlocked at shoulder height.  The lights went back on in time for three young girls to do some traditional dancing to an accordian.  I felt very at home - the girl's dancing wouldn't have looked out of place at a Highland Games.  Add to that the fact that several of the female Elders were wearing tartan skirts under their amautis and it's obvious that I'm following in the footsteps of a long line of Scots venturing into the Canadian Arctic.  I think the originals were Scots whalers, followed by "Company men" - the Hudsons Bay Company had a policy of recruiting Scots and Newfoundlanders because those nationalities were supposedly used to hardship and deprivation!   After that little digression let's return to the celebration.  One of the male Elders managed to strike a light - his back was to me so I'm not sure whether he used flint or rubbed a fire stick (I'm hoping he managed to do it without a lighter).  Then a young girl carried the lit taper round to relight the three qulliqs to the sound of everyone cheering and clapping.  After a short period I was slightly surprised to see that the lamps were extinguished in order to clear the floor space for the dancing.  Putting out the lights didn't seem very traditional!  Next up was a drum dancing competition.  There were about eight pairs of singers and dancers.  The singer sat up on stage while the dancer stayed on the floor of the hall.  It seemed that the singer could be either male or female while the dancer was always male.  The singer would begin, generally a low ululating call, I'm not sure if the songs had words or not.  The drums were circular and very simple, just a piece of material stretched over a circle with a handle.  In the other hand the drummer held a stick which looked like it was wrapped with padding (possibly cotton grass).  The drum was always hit on the underside, first on one side of the circle, then on the other.  It was all quite slow and rhythmic as the drummer/dancer rose and fell, turning in the centre of the circle.  After the drum dancing there was a "candy toss" to end the evening.  That was very popular!  Some of the people hurling sweets from the stage had very strong throwing arms - it would have been a bit embarrassing to be injured by flying candy!