Every summer a B'nai Brith camp in Canada's Laurentian Mountains transforms itself into a Yiddish Klezmer summer festival, complete with musicians, dancers, and singers.
The festival, called KlezKanada, which was held this year from August 22 through August 28, featured workshops, lectures, and lots of singing and dancing, klezmer style. This year's theme was Jewish Humor.
Over the sixteen years that the festival has been running, it developed its own traditions. One of them is for the hundreds of participants to walk backwards to greet the Sabbath on Friday evening. It's quite a scene, with the walkers and musicians all marching backwards, some wearing kippot and some not, singing a special nigun, and welcoming Shabbat.
How did this tradition start? You'll have to watch the video below to find out. The narration is in Yiddish, from the Forverts (Yiddish edition of The Jewish Daily Forward) with English subtitles. Enjoy!
(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY. YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)
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