The rich traditions associated with Mi-Car'me or Mid-Lent are firmly anchored in the folkways of Acadian communities. To celebrate Mi-Car'me, people visited each other's homes dressed up in masks and costumes. In the midst of the merrymaking, a mysterious character called the Mi-Car'me gave candies to little children and sometimes even delivered babies. But this strange individual scared many young Acadians because they feared he would take them away if they misbehaved.

Today, Acadians still put on their masks and costumes to go visiting for the annual Mi-Car'me celebrations in communities across Eastern Canada. Acadian Mi-Careme: Masks and Merrymaking traces the origins of this tradition, highlights modern-day celebrations, and looks at the role it still plays in Acadian culture.

Georges Arsenault is a prominent Acadian historian and folklorist who has been writing about the Acadians of Prince Edward Island since the early 1980s. His landmark book, Les Acadiens de l’Île, 1720-1980, won both the Champlain and France-Acadie prizes. In 2002, he wrote Acadian Legends, Folktales and Songs from Prince Edward Island, and with the publication of Acadian Christmas Traditions in 2007, he expanded his research to include Acadian traditions throughout Eastern Canada. The original French version of this book, La Mi-Carême en Acadie (published by La Grand Marée), received the 2008 Prince Edward Island Book Award. Sally Ross is an historian and translator from Nova Scotia. She has translated three other books by Georges Arsenault: The Island Acadians, 1720-1980 (Ragweed Press, 1989); Acadian Legends, Folktales, and Songs from Prince Edward Island (Acorn Press, 2002); and Acadian Christmas Traditions (Acorn Press, 2007).

Georges Arsenault's profile page

Née à Halifax, Sally Ross a fait ses études en France. Elle est titulaire d’une licence ès lettres et d’un doctorat de l’Université de Tours. Elle a enseigné la culture acadienne et québécoise pendant 10 ans et a traduit plusieurs livres en anglais, dont Les Acadiens de L’Île, de Georges Arsenault, et La Vraie Vie, de France Daigle. Originaire de Rivière-aux-Saumons, Alphonse Deveau a joué un rôle actif dans diverses organisations acadiennes. Il a été le premier directeur de Centre acadien de l’Université Sainte-Anne et a publié de nombreux ouvrages historiques, notamment La Ville Française, Les personnes éminentes et Diary of a Frenchman.

Sally Ross' profile page