Category: French-Canadian Customs

Thomas Cottrell : Légende canadienne

Les longues soirées d’hiver nous donnent l’occasion de faire revivre les contes et légendes d’antan. Je vous propose ici une légende de la Côte-du-Sud qui rappelle un chapitre difficile de l’histoire du Québec. Les lecteurs et lectrices anglophones apprécieront peut-être, dans le même registre, A French-Canadian Christmas Carol et The Clever Woman. Je vous invite […]

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The French-Canadian Farm in 1860, Part II

This follows the earlier excerpt of letters published in the Windsor-based Vermont Journal concerning rural life in Lower Canada. See Part I here. This post is based on letters published June 23 and July 21, 1860. *          *          * The grain-harvest treads close upon the heels of haying. It is astonishing how rapidly vegetation advances […]

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Back-Page Americans: Clippings

In conversation with Claire-Marie Brisson of the North American Francophone Podcast, several years ago, I introduced the concept of “back-page Americans,” which applies to many historically marginalized groups. In the context of Franco-American history, the concept grows out of the seeming invisibility of French Canadians in the mainstream (i.e. non-ethnic) American press. In reality, immigrants […]

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La Saint-Jean-Baptiste chez les Franco-Américains (1945-1956)

Pour une mise en contexte par rapport à l’histoire franco-américaine, consultez mon billet détaillant les grandes lignes de ce passé ou encore mon survol du parcours politique des « Francos ». Il y a quelques années, il a été question ici même des gigantesques défilés de la fête de Saint Jean-Baptiste en Nouvelle-Angleterre à la fin du […]

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Winter Carnivals of French Canada

In the colony’s earliest days, winter was an enemy. It suspended communication with the mother country and brought agriculture to a standstill for six months. Early frosts imperiled the food supply; long winters raised, in the first years, the specter of famine and scurvy. The settlers of New France at least benefitted from a seemingly […]

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Review: Schubart, The Lamoille Stories

Book Review Bill Schubart. The Lamoille Stories: Uncle Benoit’s Wake and Other Tales from Vermont. Hinesburg: Magic Hill Press, 2013 [2008]. Yet, the rural Franco-Vermonters have a sense of their identity as French people, both those who live on family-owned farms, and those who live in mini-mill towns like Beecher Falls. The French-Vermonter’s identity is […]

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The Clever Woman: A French-Canadian Folk Tale

In the literary ferment of the late nineteenth century, Quebec authors sought to craft a new national identity that could be read back in time. Quite consciously, such authors as Louis Fréchette and Honoré Beaugrand jotted down and published old oral traditions that were at risk of being forever lost. (It seems they may also […]

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Winter Customs from Louis Fréchette

In prior years, this blog has looked at customs surrounding nineteenth-century holidays and shared a unique, French-Canadian take on A Christmas Carol. Following Prosper Bender and Honoré Beaugrand, our guide this year is again a prominent French-Canadian writer—one roughly of the same generation. In Christmas in French Canada, Louis Fréchette penned short stories in English—without […]

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Othering the Madawaska in Travel Narratives

Three month ago, this blog plunged into the Upper St. John Valley, an area whose history often falls on the margins of existing narratives. The hard work of reconstructing the history of the Madawaska, its relationship with neighboring regions, and its place within empires is complicated by surviving sources that tell (at best) a partial […]

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