Acadian World Congress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Acadian World Congress, or Le Congrès Mondial Acadien, is a festival of Acadian and Cajun culture and history, held every five years. It is also informally known as the Acadian Reunion. The creator of the Acadian World Congress was André Boudreau (1945 - 2005).[1]
The first congress was held in Moncton, New Brunswick in 1994, and the second was held in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1999.
The third congress, in 2004, was held jointly by several Nova Scotia communities in the ancestral Acadie region and celebrated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first French-speaking settlers in Canada. As in the previous gatherings, musical festivals and theatrical productions displayed Acadian culture, and academics debated the meaning of Acadia in the 21st century. Debates included the best ways of preserving Acadian culture in an overwhelmingly English area, and what exactly an Acadian is in 2004. Some Acadians in the Maritimes do not recognize more recent immigrants as true Acadians, although most people accept any French-speaking Maritimer as an Acadian. There was also a debate about whether the descendants of Acadians, who do not speak French, qualify.
The 2009 Acadian World Congress will be held in the Acadian Peninsula.
fr:Congrès mondial acadien
