Success Stories

La Mi-Carême et ses masques

A French Acadian tradition on the Internet

La Mi-Carême is a one-day celebration that takes place on the third Thursday of Lent, a forty day period of penitence and fasting observed by many Christians preceding Easter. During this special day, people are invited to celebrate and escape their lenten duties by disguising themselves with masks and costumes. The disguised individuals travel from house to house of friends and families, where hosts try to guess the identities of their guests. The originality, creativity and workmanship of the masked individuals are rewarded with an evening of laughter, music, feasting and cheer.

La Mi-Carême originated in France during the Middle Ages but made its way to North America through French settlers. Today, la Mi-Carême continues to be celebrated in some French Acadian and Québécois regions such as Sainte-Antoine-de-l'Îsle-aux-Grues, Natashquan, Fatima and St-Joseph du Moine.

A group of five young individuals from St-Joseph du Moine, Nova Scotia decided to use Internet technology to promote and preserve the Mi-Carême tradition of their community. The project was carried out under contract to Industry Canada's SchoolNet Digital Collections program. This program gives youth 15 to 30 years of age entrepreneurial and technology-based job experience converting collections of Canadian material into digital form to display on SchoolNet. The SchoolNet Digital Collections website is a significant source of Canadian content on the Information Highway.

Under the guidance of Mr. Léandre Leblanc, president of LeMoine Development, a company that fabricates Mi-Carême masks as well as dedicates itself to promoting French Acadian culture, the team began collecting photographs and gathering information of the St-Joseph du Moine community. "The response from the community was so overwhelming that we had difficulty sorting through all the material during the preliminary stages of the project," exclaims Claude Chiasson, one of the graphic designers and web site producers of the team. In addition, the young team approached individuals of various generations to discuss the differences between la Mi-Carême past and present. In the end, a dynamic presentation of a community's evolving tradition was created.

The community's involvement did not stop there. During the production of the site, the team held an open house to demo their project which was very well received. Keeping in mind their community's limited experience with the Information Highway, the team devised a simple navigational scheme and included colourful images and festive designs, best reflecting the spirit of la Mi-Carême.

Claude Chiasson, a student at Collège Acadie, had two years experience in graphic design and website production prior to the project. The SchoolNet Digital Collections project allowed him to gain experience in team work. "The project allowed us to bounce ideas off each other and to develop critical thinking skills," he stated. "In the end, what had begun with many visions became a visual synthesis of five individuals' ideas, effort and hard work."

Members of the team included: Lucille Cormier, Claude Chiasson, Jessica LeBlanc, Ryan Poirier and Jeff Larade. Today, the young adults are continuing their education or pursuing career opportunities. They all agree that the teamwork and new media skills they learned during the Digital Collections project will prove very beneficial for years to come.

Although this project was designed to preserve the Mi-Carême traditon of the St-Joseph du Moine community, the Mi-Carême site also aims to reach a greater audience. The group hopes that the site will educate Canadians on the specific traditions of French Acadian culture.

Visit the SchoolNet Digital Collections World Wide Web Site at http://collections.ic.gc.ca