Tintamarre (custom)
Tintamarre is the name of acustom widespreadamong the French-speaking populationin eastern Canada , more precisely among the Acadians , in which improvised instruments are used to make as much noise as possible during a street parade through the local community and a subsequent celebration. This marks the national celebration of Acadia today.
The name comes from Acadian, a variant of French that originated in North America and originally meant ' shrill sound' or ' Krakeel '. For the Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française of 1835 (vol. 2, p. 845) Tintamarre referred to noise, noise. The custom probably originated in the middle of the 20th century with references to rural customs in France . Possibly this has to do with wedding customs like Charivari , a kind of hen party. A 19th century Parisian satirical magazine also bore the name Tintamarre .
In 1955, Norbert Robichaud , the Archbishop of Moncton , asked his congregation, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the British deportation of the Acadians , to organize a joyful "tintamarre" after bells and public prayer, in which everyone should cheerfully shout, ring or make noise. Whistles, car horns, bicycle bells and the like should be used for this.
In 1979 the Société Nationale des Acadiens revived the Tintamarre for its celebration in Caraquet on the occasion of the 375th anniversary of the founding of Acadia. The motto was: On est venus c'est pour rester (We have come to stay). A few years later the newspapers were already talking about the "Acadian tradition" of Tintamarre.
An open letter from 1992, written by Jean-Marie Nadeau , a collaborator of the Parti Acadien and the Société Nationale des Acadiens , which emphasized the inner bonds within the community, was entitled Que le tintamarre commence (So that the Tintamarre starts).
In the meantime, the celebration has become one of the most important public symbols of Acadian culture, alongside the Acadian National Day, the Acadian flag and the hymn Ave Maria Stella .
Remarks
- ^ Tintamarre: a New Acadian “Tradition” , in: Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America.
- ↑ Le Tintamarre ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2014 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: CyberAcadie.
- ^ Hans-Jürgen Huebner: French in Canada .
