Revellers begin 17 days of festivities in Lamèque

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Benjamin Shingler
Telegraph-Journal

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MISCOU - Flags waving, boat horns wailing, confetti in the air and a trio dressed in traditional Acadian garb, pirouetting about on stilts.

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Marty Klinkenberg/Telegraph-Journal

Fiddler Dominique Dupuis entertains the crowd at sunrise on Friday morning during the Fête of Light celebration in Miscou, the first event of the World Acadian Congress.

Glen Vienneau for the Telegraph-Journal

Draped in a homemade Acadian flag, Mireille Gionet, left, Raymonde Hébert, centre, and Suzanne Gionet, right, all of Bas-Caraquet, walk across the Miscou Bridge on Friday during the World Acadian Congress opening ceremonies.

That was the scene Friday morning at the northeastern tip of New Brunswick, as more than 3,000 revellers gathered at the bridge connecting Lamèque with Miscou Island to celebrate the official opening of the World Acadian Congress.

It was an auspicious beginning to the 17-day event, which will unite an estimated 20,000 Acadians from across the globe.

"I think, today, we are starting a love story that will last all 17 days," Jean-Guy Rioux, president of the congress, told the crowd between musical performances after the walk from the Miscou side of the bridge.

The congress, staged every five years, is for Acadians a time of both celebration and reflection, said Françoise Enguehard, president of the National Acadian Society.

"It is very emotional," she said in an interview. "I think it gives a great sense of renewed pride and, for some, a new sense of pride."

Enguehard says it's a chance for Acadians, many of whose ancestors were separated during the Great Expulsion, to reconnect with friends and family.

In 1755, more than 10,000 Acadians were forced from their land in the Maritimes by the British for refusing to swear oaths of allegiance.

Thousands died during the deportation and, while some returned after 1763, many established new homes as far away as Louisiana.

Jesse and Lilly Dugas, a middle-aged couple from Morgan City, La., who made the trip north in their motor home, are just two among thousands of people with Acadian roots who have gathered on the Acadian Peninsula for the congress.

Lilly, whose maiden name is Aucoin, says she became curious about her family's genealogy 10 years ago, when the World Acadian Congress was held in Lafayette, La.

On Friday morning, the couple had yet to meet anyone who shared their last name, but Lilly had already noted an important difference between New Brunswick Acadians and those who settled in Louisiana.

"We eat a lot of rice with gravy," she said, explaining one of the basics of Cajun cuisine. "I notice over here, it's potatoes "¦ with gravy."

Another group of about 50 made the trip from Loudon, France, a small village in the region that is the place of origin for many Acadians.

At the end of a week-long tour through northeastern New Brunswick, the delegation presented a gift to the congress president at a ceremonial meeting in the middle of the bridge - a transparent plastic cylinder, showing 52 rings of earth, each collected from a different community in Loudun's surrounding region.

Nadeau said the gesture is meant to symbolize the connected history of the two peoples and their hopes for a shared future.

"The Acadians are great people," Pierrick Nadeau, one of the trip's organizers, said. "And there is a bit of Acadian in us."