Every year, on June 24, Francophones across Canada gather to celebrate St. Jean Baptiste Day, and Greater Sudbury is no different.
The city is home not only to those who speak French as a first language, but share a culture that is specific to this area, and arguably, was born here: Franco-Ontarian.
Families across the community have been celebrating all week, and the events will culminate in a concert experience on Saturday, June 25, with Cercle Intime, featuring renowned musicians Zachary Richard and Robert Paquette, a presentation of La Nuit sur l’étang.
The festival has its origins over 2,000 years ago in pre-Christian Europe. It was originally the pagan celebration of the solstice, which is the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.
But with the arrival of Christianity, the festival was assimilated with the feast of St. John the Baptist, on 24 June.
In 1834, Ludger Duvernay who designated St. Jean-Baptiste as the patron saint of French Canadians. Duvernay was a printer-publisher and owner of the newspaper Patriote and then a ministerial newspaper.
He was a champion of ideas, it is said, such as the establishment of responsible government, and a person of patriotic, political, and social convictions.
Duvernay was instrumental in disseminating democratic and republican ideas and was a proud promoter of the freedom of the press.
It was his idea to revive Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations, and he served as a founding member and backbone of the Association Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal.
To celebrate this year, a concert will be held at Collège Boréal on June 25. You can enjoy a unique meeting of two great musicians, Zachary Richard and Robert Paquette, in a setting designed to offer an intimate experience. And not only will the music and setting be intimate, but attendees will be able to listen to the history of well-loved and well-known songs while they are performed accompanied by a circle of five musicians in an intimate acoustic setting.
Robert Paquette lives in Montreal but grew up in Sudbury and still maintains close ties with French Ontario. He is considered a pioneer in the development of Franco-Ontarian music and has toured internationally.
Zachary Richard moves between French and English as he sings the songs of the Cajuns of Louisiana. He has recorded more than 20 albums, and his music is described as a fusion of Cajun, Zydeco, folk and funk, and he considers himself a poet, cultural activist, environmentalist and performer.
For more information or tickets, click here.
