Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History
True crime, legends, folklore, dark history and other creepy topics from the perspective of real live Canadians.
Out With the Old: The Dark and Weird Side of New Year’s Traditions
Episode 399: As the clock strikes midnight, not everyone welcomes the New Year with champagne and resolutions. In this episode of Dark Poutine, we explore the darker, stranger, and sometimes dangerous traditions used around the world—and across Canada—to chase away bad luck and invite prosperity. From gunfire and forgotten parades in Newfoundland, to Hogmanay superstitions, poverty-banishing rituals, icy polar bear swims, and fire-lit celebrations meant to ward off evil, these customs reveal what people have been willing to risk for a clean slate. We also venture beyond Canada, examining ancient sacrifices, ritual fights, smashed plates, burning effigies, and other unsettling ways humanity has tried to reset the calendar. It’s a look at New Year’s Eve not as a party—but as a threshold, where superstition, fear, and hope collide.
Episode Sources:Guns, parades and superstitions: A host of forgotten New Year's traditions in N.L. | CBC NewsOut with the old, in with the new — East Coasters share their unusual past and present New Year’s Eve traditionsNewfoundland and Labrador CustomsNew Year's Day in Canada: Traditions, History and InsightsNew Year's leveeTop safety tips for New Year’s Eve revellers35 Crazy New Year’s Eve Celebrations Throughout HistoryBizarre New Year’s Eve Traditions From Around the World | Ripley's Believe It or Not! | Aquariums, Attractions, MuseumsDecision of the Intergovernmental Committee: 6.COM 13.26New Years in Ecuador: Yellow Panties and EffigiesThe Traditional Fighting Festivals of PeruDivers had Set the Christmas Tree Underwater of the Baikal Lake6 traditions from around the world for marking a Jan. 1 new year | CBC Life
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Podcast Episodes
Final Justice: The Murder of Beverley Ann Dyke
Episode 405: On the 17th of May 1984, 48‑year‑old Beverley Anne Dyke was found brutally murdered in a wooded area near Moray Street and Saskatchewan Avenue on the edge of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her killing, a frenzied sexua…
Left in the Cold: The Winnipeg Homeless Murders
Episode 404: In April 2015, someone began targeting some of the city’s most vulnerable residents: men living rough, sleeping outside, and often already failed by every system meant to protect them. By the time the killin…
The Melady Murders: Canada’s Last Public Hanging
Episode 403: Nicholas Melady Jr. was 24 years old when he stepped onto a wooden scaffold above the stone walls of Goderich Gaol in December of 1869, about to become the central figure in Canada’s last public hanging afte…
Black Friday: The 1987 Edmonton Tornado
Episode 402: On July 31, 1987, an ordinary summer afternoon in Edmonton, Alberta, ended in catastrophe. A powerful tornado cut through the city’s southeast, killing 27 people and leaving entire neighbourhoods destroyed i…
Vancouver’s 1907 Anti-Asian Riots
Episode 401: At the start of the twentieth century, Vancouver, B.C., was a fast-growing Pacific port. Most residents were white settlers of British or European descent, but Chinese and Japanese communities were already w…
The Clara Ford Affair: Race, Rumour, and the Shooting of Frank Westwood
Episode 400: In October 1894, 18-year-old Frank Westwood was shot on the doorstep of his Parkdale home. The killing shocked Toronto and sparked a frantic search for a suspect. Weeks later, a mixed-race tailor named Clara…
Christmas Special 2025: The Great Canadian Butter Tart Heist
Episode 398: It was supposed to be a quiet Canadian Christmas—until every butter tart in the country vanished overnight. From Nanaimo to Newfoundland, kitchens were left empty, bakers bewildered, and the RCMP at a loss.…
Demon of the Belfry: The Murders of Blanch Lamont and Minnie Williams
Episode 397: In April 1895, two young women, both twenty-one, from San Francisco’s Emmanuel Baptist Church vanished days apart. Blanche Lamont, a dedicated teacher-in-training, and Minnie Williams, a hardworking domestic…
Road Trip: Deadly Prophecy — The Children of Thunder
Episode 396: In this episode, we learn about an enigmatic narcissistic psychopath who led the Californian cult called The Children of Thunder. Glenn Taylor Helzer, and the other leadership was comprised of his brother Ju…
Bound by Silence: The Murder of Dr. Edith Wightman
Episode 395: On a cold December day in 1983, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was shaken by a deeply unsettling crime. Dr. Edith Wightman, a respected scholar, was discovered dead in her office: bound with tape,…
