Welcome to the last of our Summer Series on Acadian history! This week marks not only the end of our series, it’s also the fête nationale d’Acadie on August 15th! From the amount of people who tried to wish me a “Joyeux Saint Jean Baptiste” on the 24th of June, there seem to be quite a few people who are unaware of the fact that Acadians have their own national holiday, chosen specifically to be separate from that of the Québec St-Jean Baptiste day by the convention nationale d’Acadie in 1881. (If you want to find out more about that process, both Chantal Richard and Ron Rudin have written about it.)
This year’s fête nationale comes with its own special surprise – our own heritage minute! I’ve been a big fan of the heritage minutes since I was a kid, so to get one that features Acadian history is pretty special. The debut will be on stage in Moncton during the Congrès Mondiale Acadienne 2019, after which everybody can see it on YouTube! I’ll be sure to post it on twitter for everybody to see, so be sure to watch that space! And, as always, you can catch the rest of the summer series here.