The Cajuns are coming
Published Monday August 3rd, 2009
Celebration Acadians from America will join visitors from every continent except Antarctica
The Cajuns are coming, and so, too, is just about everyone else. The World Acadian Congress will have participants heading to the Acadian Peninsula from every continent except Antarctica.
Guests are confirmed from all 10 Acadian provinces and two of three territories, 15 U.S. states, a dozen countries, one island chain and one archipelago.
At this point, the question is this: Why are there no Acadians coming from Nunavut?
There is a Caissie traveling all the way from Australia for a family reunion, a Savoie hauling 500 bottles of home-made hot sauce from Costa Rica, a Dugas from Switzerland and Boudreaus from California and Colorado. There are volunteers from Mexico and Brazil, students from Senegal, an entertainer from Mali and merchants from the Magdalen Islands.
There is a Girouard band playing the Girouard clan's bash and a Girouard priest will say Mass.
In all, about 40,000 people are headed for northern New Brunswick for the massive Acadian festival that begins Friday, Aug. 7 and concludes on Aug. 23.
Over that span, they will party hearty, dance in the street, be entertained by the world's most famous Acadian performers, take part in solemn religious processions, mingle with distant relatives and feast on everything from eel and salt pork to clams, cod and traditional Acadian delicacies like fricot and poutine râpée.
Believe me when I say these people know how to eat: a few days, they are serving lobster at sunrise breakfasts.
Save a plate for me, please.
The Cajuns are coming from southern Louisiana, of course, and several thousand will soon be landing in the Acadian Peninsula. A caravan of 62 motor homes is en route, and there is a fleet of charter buses headed this way, too.
Perhaps, if you hold a Hurricane Glass to your ear, you can already hear the faint sound of zydeco music.
The State of Louisana is sending an official delegation of about 20 people and will have a booth set up at the Espace Neuf village in Pokemouche. The Louisianans are bidding to host the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien and are pulling out all stops to demonstrate their southern hospitality.
They have even brought two Cajun chefs, and on Aug. 18, the date of the Cadien Country Mardi Gras, they will be doling out free bowls of gumbo. The Louisianans will also be hosting regular jam sessions, and will be chatting up anyone who comes near, whether it be about gator hunting or Cajun culture.
A welcome mat has been laid out by 60 communities across the Acadian Peninsula, and the locals are eager to entertain. Houses have been gaily decorated with lobster taps painted in Acadian colours, streamers and flags. Evangeline herself pops up here and there - a statue on the steps of a house near St. Simon, a dummy sitting in a covered wagon beside Route 11 in Caraquet, another in Richard Caron's amazing souvenir shop in Grand-Anse.
Merchants like Caron, who sells everything from delicate Christmas ornaments to wind chimes, jewelry, stained glass, tiny ships in bottles and scale models of exquisite wooden fishing boats hand-crafted by 82-year-old Alcide Chiasson of Bas-Caraquet, are expecting a flood of visitors to give them a financial boost.
"Everyone is excited, and the whole population is proud to have the Congress here,'' Caron said. "These next several weeks should be great."
The economy is tough in the U.S right now, but the Cajuns are coming, anyway.
"People here, if there is any way they can get there, they will,'' said Elaine Clement, the relations director for the Counsel for the Development in French in Louisiana. "There is something special about being together with Acadians from all over the world, reclaiming each other, and seeing how much alike we are, no matter where we are from."
Marty Klinkenberg is contributing editor of the Telegraph-Journal. Reach him at martyklinkenberg@hotmail.com
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