|
Acadian fest ties threads
of history
By Coleman Warner, Times-Picayune,
8/2/99
|
More than 400 people gather on the front lawn of Southdown
Plantation
in Houma on Sunday for a special Mass in French, celebrated
in honor
of the Acadian world reunion and festival that
started Sunday.
Photos by Jennifer Zdon/The Times-Picayune
|
Tabitha Avet, 5, kicks off the festival with a song Sunday
at Main Street in
downtown Houma. The celebration featured traditional
South Louisiana food,
zydeco music and dancing and Mardi Gras throws from a
float. |
HOUMA - As they downed fried
crab claws, caught beads thrown
from a symbolic Carnival float and
listened to rousing Cajun music, visitors to the official opening of the
Congres Mondial Acadien on Sunday could have called it the latest of an
endless stream of south Louisiana festivals.
But to most associated with the
Acadian world reunion playing out
in communities stretching from Houma to Lafayette, the gathering is an
event of historic importance. |
It follows in a line of events that reinforced notions of Acadian and,
in
Louisiana, Cajun culture over the past several decades, including rave
reviews given to famed Cajun musician Dewey Balfa at a Newport, N.J.
folk music festival back in 1964 and the founding of the Council for the
Development of French in Louisiana in the late '60s, said Brian Comeaux,
director a nonprofit group that organized the Congres Mondial.
"South Louisiana is so good at throwing parties and festivals and so forth,
but I don't think we've ever tried to do something like this," Comeaux
said,
noting that more than 3,000 volunteers have pulled together to make the
world reunion a reality.
For Rod Rodrigue, a longtime Houma resident who once directed a
French radio program, the reunion activities -- a follow-up to a massive
gathering of French Acadians in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1994 -- will
provide a lasting incentive for people of Acadian heritage to celebrate
their
roots.
"There was a separation, and now it's coming back," Rodrigue, 68, said
of
French Acadians driven from eastern Canada by the British in the 1700s,
resulting in the later settlement of many in the south Louisiana wilderness.
"I've never been to Nova Scotia (where Acadians once flourished) but I
hope to go," he said. "I think this helped convince me to go there."
Rodrigue joined a crowd of people of Acadian ancestry -- from Louisiana,
many other states and from parts of Canada -- who enjoyed music, food
and Cajun artifacts at the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum during the
official opening day of two weeks of events in the world reunion.
Temperatures reaching to the high 90s tested crowds attending daytime
festivities in Houma, with one pair of women visiting from New Brunswick
ducking inside the Waterlife Museum for a brief cool respite. "Can you
believe the heat out there?" one asked the other.
But others seemed to ignore the heat as they danced to a country band and
caught beads with attached crawfish and alligators from a parked Carnival
float.
"Hey, it's against the law to walk around without any beads around your
neck!" one float rider shouted to a passing woman. Tossing her a handful,
he said, "Now you're legal, you can go anywhere you want."
The heat posed less of a challenge to hundreds of people attending an 8
a.m. French Mass at the Southdown Plantation in Houma, an event that
included a procession of French, Acadian and American flags and a
pancake breakfast.
And it didn't deter a crowd of thousands that gathered next to the
Terrebonne Civic Center to watch a Canadian skydiving team whose act,
as it turned out, was canceled because of mechanical problems with the
plane.
Performances by headline Cajun musicians Jo-El Sonnier and Waylon
Thibodeaux and Acadian groups from Canada were disrupted for about an
hour at the center by a fierce lightning rain storm, forcing the crowd
to take
shelter inside where they participated in dancing with American Indian
groups.
| After the storm cleared, much of
the crowd streamed back out, for the music to resume. The storm, said Thomas
Gallant, 56, a visitor from New Brunswick, was "just a refreshment."
A series of events will be held across
south Louisiana in the coming two weeks as part of the diverse Congres
Mondial celebration, with academic conferences, a business meeting and
mini-festivals adding to dozens of reunions staged by specific families. |
Earl Eschete plays the violin with Eschete Family Ties
Band at the Mardi GrasPromenade on Main Street in downtown Houma Sunday
to start the Acadian festival. |
The world reunion has placed Louisiana's Cajun communities, and its
record in preserving use of French, in the international spotlight. Journalists
from Canada and France have joined the local press corps in covering the
events, and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco was peppered with questions about
the state's support for French immersion programs during an afternoon
press conference.
Diane Marleau, Canada's minister for international cooperation, attended
Sunday's festivities to praise efforts to establish fresh ties between
Acadian
cousins across North America.
"In this world of globalization, it's so important that we connect with
one
another, that we share what we are," she said. "Enjoy this time together,
appreciate one another, build bridges."
Key Acadian world reunion events open to the public include:
"French Table" music event featuring traditional folk songs, Aug. 4,
5-8:30 p.m., Acadian Memorial, St. Martinville, (318) 394-2258.
Acadian genealogy symposium, Aug. 5, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Nicholls
State University, Thibodaux, (504) 448-4626.
Acadian "Grande Soiree", featuring plantation tours, cooking and
concert, Aug. 5, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie,
(800) 442-5539.
Reenactment of arrival of first Acadians in St. James Parish and
French mass, Aug. 8, 8-11 a.m., St. James Catholic Church, St.
James, (225) 265-4210.
Genetics of the Acadian People conference, Aug. 9, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.,
McNeese State University, Lake Charles, (504) 568-6151.
Acadian scholars' conference, including historians, linguists, literary
experts and ethnologists, Aug. 10, 9 a.m., University of
Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, (318) 482-6811.
Economic conference, exploring business ties between Louisiana
and maritime provinces of eastern Canada, Aug. 12, Centre
International de Lafayette, Lafayette, (318) 291-5474.
Discussions on benefits of French immersion teaching and challenges
to such programs, Aug. 12, 2-5 p.m., University of Southwestern
Louisiana Alumni Center, Lafayette, (318) 989-8316.
"Cri du Bayou" closing concert, hosted by Zachary Richard, Aug.
15, 7 p.m., Cajundome, Lafayette, (888) 526-1999 (tickets
required). |
CMA Newspaper Articles - August 2
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