Shamrock, I'll do my best to answer your question, but my approach plates are at work (not at home).
If you're not familiar with a circling procedure -- all in means, in a nutshell, is to fly an instrument approach for a runway, and at a certain point during that approach, you fly a visual maneuver to line up and land on another runway.
As far as EWR, I don't think there are any instrument approaches at all to Runway 29. Might be due to obstacles, buildings, etc.
If there is a cloud base, aircraft would have to shoot an instrument approach to 22 (or 04, possibly, depending on other factors), then circle to 29. The approach plates for 22L and 22R each have circling mins published, and 04L and 04R probably do too.
Even on a clear day, a normal (long-ish) visual straight-in to 29 might not be possible due to several factors, such as obstacles or interference with other air traffic flows. An approach followed by a circle would keep the EWR traffic in a more defined space.
With the winds as they've been in your area, the procedure you describe above was probably the only way to keep the airport open.