May 17 - National Fiddlers Day - La Journée Nationale Des Violoneux
May 17 - National Fiddlers Day - la journée nationale des violoneux
This year, I’m earnestly starting up my fiddle learning as part of my spiritual practice. For many Acadian and French Canadian families, having a violoneux (fiddler) among us was a guaranteed entertainer!
My great great grandfather Dominique Malaison, out of thirteen siblings, was the only one to pick up a musical talent! He would keep his fiddle attached to an old red ribbon, and mounted it on the staircase wall. He would play the Hangman’s Reel and the Devil’s reel to my then young great uncle Leo’s requests. Dominique’s wife Anasthasie Arsenault would be the expert podorhythmic and would turlutte the songs with great breath control! They passed on this gift to my great grandmother Angèle Malaison. She would play tunes and my mother would dance to them. I also have vague memories of dancing to her playing as well when I was really young.
Others in my family also had the penchant for the fiddle. My great great grandfather Joseph Gilbert would learn his tunes with recorded vinyls, and practice late into the night. Their house was really small and no soundproofing! His daughter, my great grandmother Florida Gilbert, would be sleeping in her room and tell him “you don’t have that part yet!” And he’d go to her bedroom door and ask her “well then sing it for me!”
My mother took violin lessons, but never really stuck with it. Although, she does keep Angèle’s fiddle displayed on the mantle in her house. I’ll inherit it one day.
Learning fiddle for me is a struggle, it being a really hard instrument to learn anyway. As I’m attempting to understand how to read music and develop my musical ear, I remind myself of those who came before me, and that I am carrying on for them. I want to bring that same joie de vivre and dancing joy to my own house with this heritage, and participate in my musical culture in full swing! I try to light a candle every time I practice, to remember them and to wish me luck at the same time!
Dominique Malaison
My mom (little kid at the right), enjoying Angèle playing tunes while her son Raymond sits nearby.
Florida and Noël on their wedding day, with Joseph Gilbert on the right.
More Posts from Lesorciercanadien and Others
I decorated a Huckleberry compass this week! The shape is reminiscent of a planchette and it held the perfect opportunity for some stained glass painting.
Lent 2025 personal devotion
For Lent this year, I'll read 12 pages a day for 40 days of this wonderful translation.
On All Souls day, pray for your departed loved ones. Pray for those who you never knew in life. Pray for those souls who are forgotten by everyone. Pray and help them to find their way.
Bonjour and Hello!
My name is Laurence and I am a Heritage Witch. I chose this path in 2019 after research into my genealogical roots and heritage from Quebec and Acadia. I wanted to create a path for myself that was relevant to my experience growing up in my Quebec family and in the surrounding landscape around me. I have another Tumblr account, showing some French Canadian witch material, but I decided to hone the focus and create a new account just for this.
I research French Canadian and Acadian folk ways and history, using archive and scholarly sources to gain knowledge for my practice. I also aim to write a book about these practices for the modern witch. I want to have the information I gathered to be accessible to the wider witchcraft and Pagan community, for anyone that would be interested in adding these tidbits to their path.
As the book is being written, I am going to post some blog entries about my findings, and little tidbits of knowledge I've found.
This blog is a safe space for all witches and everyone that comes with an open mind. While French Canadian and Acadian culture is beautiful, I recognize the colonial aspects of the history and culture, and I aim to dismantle that. I will not entertain or tolerate Quebec nationalism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. I support active reconciliation efforts with indigenous cultures and peoples, and while I recognize that French Canadians and Acadians have a shared cultural history with indigenous peoples, this blog will not post or teach indigenous practices. It is not my place to do so. This practice focuses on folk Catholicism as practiced by my ancestors. I do not support the Catholic Church and I want them to be held accountable for all the wrongs they have committed. This is a place of love and acceptance.
Stay tuned and I look forward to exploring and sharing further.
-Laurence
progress
Progress on my nativity scene box :) though I'm still pondering what to do on the outside of the box...
Really Gorgeous Playing Card Decks from Bicycle Cards! An appreciation
Since I've been reading normal playing cards in my folk practice, I didn't want to limit myself to any ordinary deck I'd find in Dollarama or in a cupboard. Like Tarot cards, I want my deck to be gorgeous and evocative! So, here are my favourites, and you all might love looking at these!
Aviary (I own this one and use it for my practice)
Marquis
Jubilee
The Sea King (I lost my ace of spades in this one)
Odyssey
Stargazer New Moon
Stargazer
Stargazer Sunspot
Stargazer Observatory
Voyager
Honorable mention: A Ducale Game. I have no idea how to play it, but the cards evoke really old art styles! Not from Bicycle.
sharing some resources on the works of st. hildegard of bingen!
Texts and Chants
Hymn to the Virgin (w/ sheet music and commentary)
Scivias
Selected Writings of Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation
The visions of Hildegard of Bingen. 1928.
Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening of Medieval Medicine
fair warning, though. some of them are behind a paywall. do with them what you will.
La Chandeleur
Candlemas, or La Chandeleur as it is known in French-speaking Catholic communities, starts on the evening of February 1st into February 2nd. It commemorates Jesus's presentation at the Temple (Luke 2:22-40) as the Light of the World.
The Blessed Candle
This time of year is full of light festivals all over the world. For Acadians, la Chandeleur is celebrated with the blessing of a candle at church at 8am, and bringing it home to in turn bless the home.
The blessed candle is kept at the parents' bedside, or on a tiny shelf in the kitchen. It would be lit during big storms, as a foil to lightning, during periods of illness, a hard childbirth, and when a death occurs in the house. When a priest would visit the house to provide communion to a sick parishioner, the candle would be lit and carried to guide the priest to the ailing person's bedside, and the same rite would apply to the final rites of a dying person. The flame remains lit during the wake. The candle is also lit during Marial devotions during the month of May. If healing is prayed for during a novena, it also doesn't hurt to light this candle.
Once those candles are blessed, the master of the home is to bring the lit candle to every corner of the house to bless it with its light. They would also bring this light to the barn and the fields for blessings. Many families boast of a special candle holder just for this candle.
On Prince Edward Island, pieces of this candle's wax were also brought aboard on fishing boats along with woven palm fronds, and were meant to keep the fisherman safe during storms at sea.
Acadian Candle Blessing
"Daignez bénir et sanctifier ces cierges pour notre usage, pour la santé des corps et des âmes, sur terre comme sur mer."
"May these candles be blessed and sanctified for our use, for the health of our bodies and souls, on land as on the sea."
Chandeleur Crêpes
It's also a crêpe-making day!!! On the eve of this holiday (Feb.1), families would make crêpes for dinner, often using the last of last year's flour. This stems from medieval France, when peasants would use the previous year's flour (most likely their only flour left) to ensure the next year's harvest would be bountiful. It is tradition in Acadie to have every member of the household flip their own crêpe, to determine if a successful flip would grant them luck for the year. Some families even kept a piece of the crêpe in their cupboard all year long to ward off bad luck.
Crêpe recipe
One cup white flour
1 1/4 cup of milk
1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup of freshly fallen snow, compacted (nowadays, I wouldn't recommend it. Snow falls on the ground polluted. It used to be a common ingredient in Acadian and Quebecois cooking. You can skip it and the recipe would still turn out fine.)
Frying grease or vegetable shortening, or butter for the pan.
Serve with molasses or grated maple sugar.
A Season of Giving
It is also a time in Acadian villages where folks would go around and ask for donations to their local food banks or church soup kitchen service. They would parade with a tall staff with a rooster figure on top (called a chief's cane) and with each donation, a ribbon is added to the stick. In the evening, when the village would gather for a community potluck, people could reclaim their ribbons from the rooster staff. Festivities of fiddle playing, dancing and merriment were in order in most homes and community centres.
Acadian communities like Chéticamp and other small Acadian hamlets still celebrate to this day!
Ideas for Anyone Far from a Community
Seeing as I don't live in an Acadian community sadly, here are some ideas of things I can do, and maybe you can do too, to celebrate today!
Make crêpes and perform the best flip! Your luck depends on it!
Bless your own candle with holy water, parade it to every corner of your home.
Create a chief's cane, and plant it in your front yard. With every donation you accept for a food bank or other charitable effort, add a ribbon, heck, ask your neighbours and friends to participate!
Organize a potluck!
Use the wax from the candle to bless the lintel post of your doors, or other objects you wish to bless.
Bonus photo: Moonshadow blocking my holiday book's Chandeleur page and refusing to move.
Source
Georges Arsenault. La Chandeleur en Acadie. Editions la Grande Marée. 2011.
Painting
La Chandeleur. Painting by Camille Cormier, painted in 1984. Oil on canvas. Coll. Musée Acadien, Moncton University. Acq. 1986-17.
"Totentanz/Danse Macabre" Probably one of my most well known & and most fitting for the season piece is once again available as a tapestry print!
Book of Seasons and Festivities
I wanted to share some images of my work so far in a book of holidays, seasonal religious and cultural celebrations for my own personal path. :)
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I am a heritage witch of Acadian and French-Canadian folk catholicism. My practice stems from my family knowledge, scholarly research, and artistic hobbies. This is a safe space for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, people of every non-judgmental spiritual calling. I will block anyone who tells me to repent.
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