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French Canadian and Acadian culture resources, music, retailers and media

I want to share where I usually find resources regarding my culture, what I tend to trust, and what music, movies and literature informs my spiritual practice! Many of them are in French, with options to switch to English within the website parameters.

Cultural, historical societies and archive centres

Centre Marius Barbeau: The Center specializes in the area of immaterial culture. Its mission is to preserve, promote and encourage recognition, conservation, passing on and spreading of Quebec folk arts and traditions including those of the First Nations and other ethnic communities. The centre owns more than 10,000 documentary pieces of which a very large part is already catalogued and indexed! Costumes, songs, recordings, visual art, and so so much more! https://www.cdmb.ca

Centre de recherche Père Clarence d'Entremont, Musée des Acadiens des Pubnicos, Société Historique Acadienne de Pubnico-Ouest: The Archives « Centre de recherche Père Clarence-J. d’Entremont» is located on the second floor of the Museum and Centre de recherche annex. The archives house many collections including the private collection of historian Father Clarence-J. d’Entremont. Amongst the collections found in the research center are over 5000 library books and periodicals (historical and genealogical), genealogies, land grants, deeds, microfilms, photos, maps, photographs, church records, etc. https://www.museeacadien.ca/research-center

Acadian Research Center of Prince Edward Island: Part of the Acadian Museum in PEI. They have more than 4,000 Acadian family records, including information on birth, marriage and death dates, as well as various censuses. This is in addition to the 30,000 genealogical records that their volunteers have transcribed over the years, as well as the 160 Acadian family files, binders and booklets given to them by independent researchers. They also have 340 thematic files covering various topics related to Acadian history and a library of more than 1,500 books on Acadian history as well as rare books. The Acadian Research Center of Prince Edward Island has more than 230 fonds in its collection, belonging to individuals or organizations.To view some archival fonds and photos, please visit: http://acadieipe.ca The Acadian Research Center follows the same opening hours as the Acadian Museum. To view the documents mentioned above or for more information, please contact the Acadian Museum at (902) 432-2880.

Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, University of Moncton, New Brunswick: The Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, established in 1968, collects and preserves all relevant documentary material concerning the Acadians and Acadian Society in various fields (history, genealogy, ethnology, sociology, archeology, folklore, demography, geography, economics, language) and offers inventories and tools to facilitate access to this material to interested researchers and members of the public. It has the largest collection of private and institutional records on Acadia in the world. It is located next to the Acadian Museum, which features a permanent exhibition and temporary exhibits, as well as guided tours and screenings of historical films and documentaries. https://www.umoncton.ca/umcm-ceaac/

Scholars and authors

Georges Arsenault (1952- still alive): historian and folklorist, born in Abram's Village, Prince Edward Island. He has published extensively on the folklore and history of the Acadians of his home island, many of these books I have in my collection for the traditions and holiday celebrations of my culture. Favorite book: Contes, légendes et chansons de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard. Grande Marée. 2018.

Père Anselme Chiasson (1911-2004): a Catholic priest, educator and writer, born in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia. He has made significant contributions to the recording of Acadian history and folklore and folktales. He also published several volumes of Chansons d'Acadie, collections of Acadian songs. Favorite book: Chéticamp : Histoire et Traditions acadiennes. Préface de Luc Lacourcière. 3e édition. Moncton : Éditions des Aboiteaux, 1972.

Marius Barbeau (1883-1969): A monumental figure in folklore studies in Canada, he was born in Ste-Marie-de-Beauce, Quebec. Ethnographer, folklorist, a founder of Canadian anthropology. He is known for his early championing of Quebecois folk culture and his exhaustive cataloguing of the social organization, narrative and musical traditions and plastic arts of Quebecois and many First Nations oral traditions for a mass audience. He worked from 1916 to 1950 as editor on the Journal of American Folklore, in that time focusing a lot on Canadian folklore. TW: this researcher may present biases towards First Nations people and their cultures, using terms that are not considered okay today. So please, support more recent scholars and preferably First Nations authors to know more. Favorite book: Ceinture Flechée. Montréal: Paysana. 1945.

Pierre DesRuisseaux (1945-2016): Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, he was a novelist, essayist, poet, and journalist. He wrote many works on the expressions, proverbs, sayings, and folkloric tales of Quebec. Favorite book: Croyances et pratiques populaires au Canada français, Montréal, Éditions du Jour, 1973.

Jean-Claude Dupont (1934-2016): Born in Saint-Antonin, Quebec, he was an ethnographer and researcher at University of Laval. His ethnological thesis, Héritage d'Acadie, documented the spiritual traditions of Acadians, and I use it heavily in my practice. He was a pioneer of material cultures research, using this in his ethnological research. Favorite book: Heritage d’Acadie. Collection Connaissance, éditions Lemeac. 1977. 

Carolyn Podruchny (still active in academia!): PhD, is a Professor of History at York University. Her research focuses on the relationships forged between Indigenous peoples and French colonists in northern North America. Her first monograph, Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade (2006), examines French Canadian voyageurs who worked in the North American fur trade based out of Montreal, and ranging to the Great Lakes, the Great Plains, northern woodlands, and the subarctic. She focuses a lot on Indigenous Peoples , History, The meeting of Europeans and Indigenous peoples in the North American fur trade. The cultural, social, gender, labour, and environmental questions, Early Canadian history, Metis history, fur trade history, colonialism. She is an amazing resource! Favorite book: Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press. 2006.

Benoît Lacroix (1915-2016): Born in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, Quebec. A Quebec theologian, philosopher, Dominican priest, professor of medieval studies and historian of the Medieval period, and author of almost 50 works and a great number of articles. His collection is extensive in terms of religious life in Quebec, and a high recommendation for spiritual inspiration! Even just the list of publications on Wikipedia is a wealth of possibility, I recommend it! Favorite book: Folklore de la mer et religion. Editions Lemeac, 1980.

Antonine Maillet (1929- 2025): This lesbian queen of the letters in Acadie! She is an Acadian novelist, playwright and scholar. She was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick. It's impossible to note down which of her books are the best, they're all such authentic works! For my favorite book, it's for my research into the folklore of course! I first read her for her novel, Pélagie-la-Charette, published in 1974. It's about an Acadian woman who guides her fellow Acadians out of Georgia back to their homeland, enmeshing folklore and history together in her narrative. Favorite book: Rabelais et les traditions populaires en Acadie. Les Archives de Folklore, 13. Les Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec, 1971.

Fred Pellerin (1976- still alive): a legend of traditional Quebec storytelling, Fred is from Saint-Élie-de-Caxton. He is a storyteller, author, and screenwriter. He's especially known for his double-entendre turns of phrases, clever verbal acrobatics, rhythm of speaking, and his amazing imagination of the Quebecois landscape and villages of the 19th century into the 20th. He has many books with accompanying CDs with his many stories of his village and the colourful characters inhabiting it. He also collaborated on the film adaptations of his folktales Babine (2008), Ésimésac (2012), and L'arracheuse de temps (2021). Favorite book: Dans mon village, il y a belle Lurette…, livre et CD, Planète rebelle, collection « Paroles », 2001, 142 p. (ISBN 2-9225-2855-3)

Musical heritage and modern bands

Le Vent du Nord: Favorite album: Territoires (2019) a mainstay in the Canadian folk landscape, Le Vent du Nord specializes in traditional French-Canadian folk music. Fiddle, mandolin, accordion, guitar, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, and rich vocal harmonies and podorythmie beats. Their Shrewsbury music festival shows on Youtube are absolutely riveting to watch! One of my all-time favorite bands for my magical musical needs! "La Turlutte a bassinette" is one of my main grounding songs.

Luc Arbogast: Favorite album: Oreflam (2014). This man. Where to begin with this amazing individual!? He's from Larochelle, France, and was a contestant on season 2 of the Voice. He is a troubadour who plays traditional instruments like the Irish bouzouki, lute, bells. He is known for his unique countertenor voice and medieval songs inspired by artists like Hildegard of Bingen, Walther von der Vogelweide, and Guillaume de Machaut. He sings in old dialects, French and English. If I ever cross his path on the streets of Strasbourg one day, I will fanboy scream.

Vishtèn: Favorite album: Terre Rouge (2015). They are a folk music group from Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands, whose style is rooted in Acadian music. They performed for the Library of Congress, available on Youtube "Vishtèn: Acadian music from Prince Edward Island". They fuse French, Acadian and Irish tunes. Quite beautiful harmonies too!

Les Tireux d'Roches: Favorite album: Tapiskwan sipi (2021). They're from St-Élie-de-Caxton, Mauricie, Quebec. They are considered storytellers-musicians-troubadours of Quebecois folklore and music. Using the cello, bouzouki, guitar, banjo, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, flute, harmonica. Folklorist and storyteller Fred Pellerin used to play with them!

La Bottine Souriante: favorite album: La mistrine (1994). From the Lanaudière region of Québec, La Bottine Souriante formed in 1976 during the Québec renaissance of traditional music. They use accordion, fiddle, guitar, piano, double-bass, which gives them a jazzier sound. They are known far and wide in Québec for their New Year's Eve anthems resounding in our homes, and they really go deep into the old tunes of the logging camps and voyageur trails, with some new compositions guaranteed for foot-tapping.

Les Charbonniers de L'enfer: Favorite album: La traverse miraculeuse (2008). Hailing from Quebec, they concentrate especially on vocal harmonies and acapellas, the jaw harp, and foot rhythm. They focus especially on traditional songs from the archival repertoire of French music imported with the settlers into New France, and voyageur call and response songs.

La Croisée d'Antan: Favorite album: L'antre Des Loups (2017). A trio of multi-talented musicians, La Croisée d'Antan features the violin, banjo, podorythmie, harmonica, accordion, guitar, and beautiful vocal harmonies. They have lots of traditional tunes, and new compositions with inspirations from yesteryear.

Le Diable a Cinq: favorite album: Sorti de l'enfer (2017). Five instrumentalists from the Ripon region of Outaouais, they aim to bring back the kitchen parties so fondly remembered in French Canadian households with their music. They're all from the same family: three brothers, one cousin and a friend. They use guitar, piano, vocal harmonies, accordion, podorythmie, violin, mandolin.

Movies (this list is always in progress as I discover more!)

Hochelaga: Land of Souls (2017): I watch this one every year on All Souls' Day. A Canadian historical drama film directed and written by François Girard and starring Gilles Renaud, Samian and Tanaya Beatty. Dramatizing several centuries of Quebec history and the local history of Montreal in particular, the story depicts Quebec archaeology revealing the past of indigenous peoples, explorers and 1837 rebels. I won't give away the many emotional gut punches this movie delivers. I adored seeing artifacts and then the flashback scenes of what this artifact went through in the hands of the various peoples that create today's Québec.

Babine (2008): Adapted from Fred Pellerin's book Il faut prendre le taureau par les contes, the film stars Vincent-Guillaume Otis as Babine, the village idiot of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, Quebec. A lifelong outcast because his mother (Isabel Richer) was believed to be the town witch, he becomes the immediate suspect when the town's church catches fire, killing the parish priest (Julien Poulin). However, he will receive the support of the village's merchant, Toussaint Brodeur (Luc Picard), as he attempts to prove his innocence.

Ésimésac (2012): Although an unofficial sequel to the 2008 film Babine, unlike the earlier film Ésimésac was not directly based on Fred Pellerin's previously published stories; instead, the film's screenplay placed some of Pellerin's established characters in a new original story. The film stars Nicola-Frank Vachon as Ésimésac Gélinas, a young but physically strong man whose distinguishing trait is that he does not cast a shadow. He convinces the village of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton to plant and maintain a community garden after an economic crisis has left many of the townspeople hungry, but finds himself in conflict with village blacksmith Riopel's (Gildor Roy) plan to focus on building tracks for a railroad.

L'arracheuse de Temps (2021): Based on the 2009 story by Fred Pellerin of the same name. It stars Jade Charbonneau, Marc Messier, Céline Bonnier, Guillaume Cyr, Émile Proulx-Cloutier, Marie-Ève Beauregard, Pier-Luc Funk, Sonia Cordeau, and Geneviève Schmidt. An illness-worn grandmother tries to convince her 11-year-old grandson that death does not exist. She tells him about the adventures of her youth in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, in 1927, when she had tried to eliminate death in the village.

Visual Artists

Clarence Alphonse Gagnon (1881-1942): One of my all-time favourite artists, and a really distant relative of mine! He was born in Montréal, Quebec. a painter, draughtsman, engraver and illustrator. He is known for his landscape paintings of the Laurentians and the Charlevoix region of eastern Quebec, where my family lived. It enchants me to no end, seeing my familiar landscapes with his brushstrokes! Favorite painting: Dans la clairière, Charlevoix. Huile sur panneau de bois, 1915. 15.7 x 22.8cm. no. 1988.113. 

Claude Langevin (1942-2024): A quick painter of landscapes, self-taught! His use of the brush is reminiscent of the Impressionists. He wished to express his affection for his people and his land. His depiction of the Laurentian landscape allows the viewer to feel a strong unfailing connection between the artist and the region he calls home. His use of light in his works reminds me so much of how the sun illuminates the Saguenay region, much to my fond memories. Favorite painting: Au but de champs.

Tom Roberts (1909-1998): Born in Toronto Ontario. He drew inspiration from the Group of Seven and French Impressionism. His paintings, characterized by vivid colours and dynamic compositions, captured the diverse landscapes of Canada, from Northern Ontario to the Maritime provinces. His use of both watercolours and oils brings versatility and an array of variety! Favorite Painting: Quebec Landscape, 1950. Oil on masonite 24 x 30” in. 

Books and Witchy Tools and Where to Get Them

Most mainstream anglophone shops like Chapters Indigo don’t have much. There are other options within Québec and in local regions for our books, and some of them ship elsewhere!

Archambault: this retailer has a lot of Quebec authors, music. Many books in their collections have folklore, regional histories, folk tales and more! Simply type the region you want, for example, Charlevoix or Saguenay, with any key words like “contes” and “folklore” and you’re bound to find a few good reads. https://www.archambault.ca

Septentrion: a bookstore specializing in historical monographs and scholarly works, especially those of France, Québec and any other region where we settled. https://www.septentrion.qc.ca

Bookmark Halifax: https://halifax.bookmarkreads.ca/. A local independent bookshop in our maritime province specializing in local interest authors and titles. Many features books include local history, graveyards, notable people, local plants, and so much more!

Carrefour Atlantic Emporium and Puffin Gallery: https://www.carrefouratlanticemporium.com. An eclectic paradise of local handicrafts, books, art from all over the maritimes! There’s a location on 1869 Upper Water Street, Halifax. I go there for most of my witchy tools like hand-carved spoons, woven tapestries, jewelry, statuettes, and lots of books on Acadian and Scots plants, folklore, history and culture books, as well and Indigenous titles. Sadly I don't think they ship, but always worth asking!

Honorable mention to Jennifer's of Nova Scotia! They're a local shop in Downtown Halifax where a multitude of local craftspeople and artisans sell their works! I get my pottery, tea, candles, art, jewelry, and trinkets from them! They only deliver within 20km of the store.

For those who garden or who are interested in Quebec-grown plants and seeds to incorporate into your spiritual path, here's a website to have a list of all available growers and seed providers! https://notreheritage.ca/semences/semenciers/#:~:text=Situé%20sur%20la%20Rive%2DSud,plein%20potentiel%20de%20chaque%20cultivar.

There's also the Pépinière Ancestrale, based in Saint-Julien, QC. a regional nursery for fruit trees, shrubs and plants! They ship to Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes! https://www.pepiniereancestrale.com

That's all I can think of for now! There's certainly more, but here is plenty to get any of you started! Feel free to reach out and ask any questions!

A drive along the coasts of Cape Breton, in Main-de-Dieu, Louisbourg, and Sydney. Various graveyards, with time-worn statues, and an abandoned church. The first photo of Christ has the Fortress of Louisbourg in the background.

Spending Holy Saturday exploring these lonely, holy places really brought me joy!

On All Souls day, pray for your departed loved ones. Pray for those who you never knew in life. Pray for those souls who are forgotten by everyone. Pray and help them to find their way. 

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

Back online!

Hello everyone! I apologize for being inactive in a while. I just graduated from my final year of Costume Studies at Dalhousie University and I am now in a place where I can research and practice my faith to my heart's desire. More posts are incoming :) the goal for this year would be to fine-tune my festivals and holy days schedule and rituals, as well as implementing my practice in my daily life. My altar got a little refreshing, my cat is helping with my holiday book, and I found a frog in the Camp Hill Cemetery!

New apartment, new altar!!!! I found a handmade kitchen hutch beautifully made by a carpenter in the 1970s. It reminded me of my grandpa's wood skills. My old one is still loved and cherished but at my girlfriend's place for us both. This one has a lot more space than my old one, storage and surface wise. I just finished painting Cap Éternité in Saguenay (bottom reference photo) on the altar backsplash area. The next project is designing stained glass windows for the doors on the cabinet hutch and installing lights at the top to illuminate the art. The one after that would be mythological creatures of French Canadian and Acadian folklore on the door medallions. I also plan to put in two sconces to hold vases of flowers on either end of the hutch, and paint more folk art designs on the hutch sides and drawers. The beginning of many a cherished moment painting this piece to make it come alive within my practice.

Lent 2025 personal devotion

For Lent this year, I'll read 12 pages a day for 40 days of this wonderful translation.

I bought the book Héritage d'Acadie by Jean-Claude Dupont, one of my favorite books on Acadian folk ways, and Luc Dupont sent me so many other books for free ❤️❤️❤️ my heart is so happy! Moonshadow is enjoying my scholarly spoils. I'm especially thrilled to receive the book on traditional Acadian medicine. That book is almost impossible to find still in print, and has been on my wishlist a very long time.

Lesson of the day: talk to your favorite authors and publishing houses. Especially in Acadian and French Canadian small print houses. They show so much generosity and openness in providing resources if you reach out.

La Mi-Carême (Mid-Lent)

Mid-Lent, or, La Mi-Carême, falls on the fourth Thursday in the Lenten season. This holiday has its roots in 7th and 8th century Europe, where believers were allowed this day of respite from the fasting and reservations of Lent. It was around the same time as Laetere Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Advent (exactly 21 days before Easter Sunday) where a spirit of joy is celebrated as we get closer to Easter. Having migrated with the French settlers of the 17th century, the Acadians and some Quebec communities, Mi-Carême became a day of carnivalesque mischief and trickery. Participants, mostly men until the twentieth century, disguised themselves with a dizzying array of masks and frocks, and do a tour of their village, challenging interlopers to guess who they were. In exchange, they would receive treats and opportunities to play pranks, sometimes a boozy recompense. In some communities, like in Grand-Étang, Nova Scotia, there is a Mi-Carême Interpretive Centre, where runners of the Mi-Carême gather on this day to do their designated tomfoolery. Lively fiddle music and sweet treats await visitors! Today, the most extensive celebration of this holiday remains in Chéticamp, Cape Breton, where it lasts a whole week. These two communities have celebrated Mi-Carême since 1785! 

Today in Québec, you can see Mi-Carême celebrations notably where Acadians migrated, namely Fatima, the Magdalen Islands, Natashquan, and L’Isle-aux-Grues. In parts of Newfoundland, Acadians would pair Mi-Carême traditions with the mummers tradition of anglophone communities, however, it occurred between Christmas and the Feast of Kings. 

Costumes would prioritize the grotesque, bizarre, and outlandish. The more ludicrous and hideous the masquerade, the better! Most costumes were improvised and very cost-effective. The point was to have no one recognize you! Old rags, hand-me-downs from distant cousins living in the United States (and unknown to the community, so no one would know whose family the clothes belonged to), and especially, clothing yourself in the clothes of your opposite gender, were sure-fire ways to be incognito on this festival day. Changing your body shape was also a notable technique, using hay to bulk out your limbs, or cushions to give yourself a hunched back. Some folks would go as industrious as using animal skins, like the hide of a bull, preserving the horns for a truly otherworldly effect! 

Disguised parties, led by a chief, would enter homes, and entertain the family with brief songs and improvised plays. Unlike the eve of All Saint’s Day (October 31), the aim was not to pull tricks. The chief of the party-goers had to see that his troupe would behave in others’ homes. However, that can change if the house they wanted to enter would not let them enter! 

La Mi-Carême, Mère Mi-Carême (Mother Mid-Lent)

Folklore traveled from Normandy and Brittany to Acadie, and transplanted itself into the maritime spirit of the people. In parts of Brittany, La Mi-Carême (Lady Mid-Lent) would be a beautiful woman who would traverse the skies on horseback, distributing sweets and treats from a magical golden cornucopia to the village cross, where children were led to for holy prayer. The treats would appear to fall from Heaven, and the children would leave behind offerings of hay for her horse at the foot of the cross as a thank you. In Quebec, this kind of figure appears in Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau’s novel Charles Guerin (published in 1852), featuring a Mère Mi-Carême (Mother Mid-Lent). She is a woman, bent forward by old age, who would hobble from home to home with a big bag on her back, and supporting herself with a thick cane. Peering through her small glasses, she was draped in old, tattered rags, adorned with fish bones and tails. Sometimes, she just appears as a hunched over figure covered by a white sheet, evoking a sense of mystery and apprehension for children. This figure also appears in Acadian communities, and almost in the habit of a traditional Santa Claus, would leave behind treats for obedient children, while chastising the mischievous ones. This figure would feature in the mythos of this holiday from the 19th century into the mid-twentieth century. When she would visit a house, children were told to not look at her leaving the house, for fear of knowing where she was headed to next. This could prevent her from coming next year. This tradition expanded to Irish immigrant communities, particularly in Tignish, PEI, where she was known as ‘mickram’ (anglicized verbiage of Mi-Carême). In some Acadian communities, especially in north-eastern New Brunswick, in Gaspésie, in the Magdalen Islands, and on the Côte-Nord of Quebec, it was known that La Mi-Carême would bring newborns to their families. When mothers would be in labour, children were told that La Mi-Carême was coming to see their mom. Given that this character gave a fright to children, they would instinctively go seek refuge at a neighbour’s house for the entire duration of their mother’s labour. She was also known to bring baby animals to the farms as well. What a busy woman! 

Celebrating Mi-Carême in a Folk Practice

-if you're in the area and wish to experience the culture and the wondrous display of colours and lively music, visit the Centre de la Mi-Carême in Grand-Étang, Nova Scotia, just off the Cabot Trail.

-it’s a time of masquerades and journeys! If you can make yourself an outfit to be completely unrecognizable, even a mask, just to take your spirit out of yourself, it can lead to some exciting astral journeys! 

-leaving an offering to La Mi-Carême, such as hay, or little quarters, might be wise, especially if you want to avoid getting a good scare from her. 

-exploring the archives for songs attached to this festival, and listening to some examples would be fun! 

-host a masquerade party and have people try to guess each other’s identities! Bringing back these celebrations means having fun in the ways we used to, so put your phones down! 

Sources

Georges Arsenault. La Mi-Carême en Acadie. Editions La Grande Marée. 2007.

Le Centre de la Mi-Carême. https://www.micareme.com

Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America. Mid-Lent Traditions in Acadia. http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-310/Mid-Lent%20Traditions%20in%20Acadia

Photos

Mid-Lent Revellers, NS, circa 1953. Collection Centre Acadien, Université Sainte-Anne.

Mi-Careme distributing cookies to children, charcoal drawing by Denise Paquette, Collection Georges Arseneault.

Tourism Nova Scotia

Centre de la Mi-Carême - Tourism Nova Scotia

Let there be light!