Alaska Day Festival Set for Main Events

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Created on Thursday, 17 October 2024 16:11

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Tonight’s the Alaska Day Ball, with its music and period costumes setting the stage for the main events of the Alaska Day Festival on Friday.
The mainstay Alaska Day include the parade, a re-enactment of the 1867 transfer ceremony, and a tea at the Pioneers Home. But along with those events will be other ones that various organizations have built up around the day that have become inseparable parts of the annual festival.

Members of the Seattle Firefighters Pipes & Drums pose outside Blatchley Middle School this afternoon following a short performance for the students. This year seventeen members of the group traveled to Sitka for the Alaska Day festival, the most ever for the group that has become an Alaska Day staple. Today they were scheduled to play at Xoots Elementary, Sitka High, the Sitka Long Term Care Facility, Blatchley, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, the Elks Lodge, Westmark, Coast Guard, the Legion Hall and the Moose Lodge before playing at the Alaska Day Ball tonight. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

The theme this year is “Honoring Our Alaskan Code Talkers,” specifically the Tlingit code talkers of World War II from Southeast who were the subject of the Sitka Historical Society’s annual meeting Wednesday.
Alaska Day is the anniversary of the formal transfer of territories claimed by the Russian empire to the United States on October 18, 1867.
Events around Alaska Day start up to a week before the event culminating on the holiday. Hal Spackman, director of the Sitka Historical Society & Museum, said it’s a good time to think about Sitka’s history.
“The uniqueness of Alaska Day festivities is that they go on for a week, so people are engaged in history or the commemoration of an event that supports history for a number of events,” he said. “Thus, it gets them thinking about history and Sitka’s history specifically.”
Alaska Day was declared a state holiday in 1917 by the Alaska Territorial legislature, but Sitka is the only community in the state with a week’s worth of events.
The calendar of events this year started October 12, and included events on Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 14, and the Sitka Historical Society’s annual meeting, fundraisers and lectures.
Open houses, fundraisers, swearing in of the Keystone Kops are all part of the week, leading up to a long list of events on Friday.
Spackman noted that the season lends itself to getting together for conversations and gathering, with the inclement weather and days getting shorter. “It’s a great time of year to come together.”
Lutheran Pie Anniversary
One of the longstanding traditions around Alaska Day is the Sitka Lutheran Church Pie Sale, a fundraiser for disaster relief around the world.
Some two dozen men and women in the last week have been baking pies of all varieties.
“I just got done making about a dozen pumpkin pies, shoo-fly pies, peach,” said Charlotte Candelaria, who is coordinating the fundraiser this year with fellow church member Lois Rhodes.
The list of pies is extensive, including chocolate cream, key lime, pecan, cherry, lemon meringue, rhubarb “and hopefully others of your favorites,” she said.
This is the 30th anniversary of the pie sale, which formerly involved buying a pie or a slice in the church basement on the holiday, and eating it there, or taking it away. The pie sale today is a bit different, because pies are sold whole, and taken home to enjoy with friends and family, as a new tradition.
“It’s still fun to look forward to the pie sale, see what’s available, visiting with people, even if it’s just in line at the church, and hoping your pie isn’t sold out,” Candelaria said.
Rhodes and Candelaria have been the coordinators for the last four years, and Candelaria has been baking pies for more than a decade for the fundraiser.
Her favorite? “I don’t have a favorite. I eat them all!”
The pie sale is 10:30 until sold out or 4 p.m. but Candelaria said they’ve rarely gotten to 4 p.m. because the pies customarily sell out early. “The last two years we’ve had over 200 pies and they just fly out the door.”
Funds raised from the $25 price on the pies and concurrent quilt sale go to various charities related to disaster relief. Candelaria noted the current needs in the south related to hurricane disaster relief, and the connection of the Sitka church to other parts of the country through its volunteer program.
The pie sale is in the back of the church, off Harbor Drive, and customers are asked to park elsewhere to avoid blocking the driveway. The quilt sale is at the front door.
The schedule of events is as follows:
Today
– 6:30 p.m. ‘‘Children of Shatila,’’ documentary, Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi
– 7 p.m. Alaska Day Ball, Harrigan Centennial Hall
Friday, Alaska Day
– 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. St. Michael’s Sisterhood Fish Pie Luncheon, ANB Founders Hall
– 10:30 a.m. 30th anniversary of the Alaska Day Pie Sale, Sitka Lutheran Church. No parking behind the church. Pies are $25 and sold whole only on a first come first served basis.
– 10:30 a.m. Quilt Sale, Sitka Lutheran
– 11 a.m. Fire Department Open House with bagpipers, Sitka Fire Hall
– 11 a.m. Military Memorial Service, Sitka National Cemetery
– 12:30 p.m. Parade Line-Up, Swan Lake
– 1:30 p.m. Alaska Day Parade, Lake Street to Totem Square
– 2 p.m. Transfer Ceremony, Castle Hill
– 2-5 p.m. SEDA Brew Fest and Chili Cook-Off, Harrigan Centennial Hall
– 2:30-4 p.m. Sitka Pioneers Home Variety Show and Tea, Pioneers Home
– 6:30 p.m. Annual Alaska Day Auction, Pioneer Bar