- Acadian Easter Traditions: A very special time for early settlers
By Laurent d’Entremont – Special
Easter has always been a very special time. It marks the anniversary of the resurrection; the day Christ rose from the grave two thousand years ago.
Before the time of Christ, it was a common practice for some people to worship gods and goddesses.
The goddess of spring was called “Eastre” and because Easter comes in the spring it was named for this goddess.
A council of the Christian Church determined the date on which Easter would fall on about 300 years after the birth of Jesus. It was decided this festive day would be celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring Equinox.
Cross With Sash And Crown Of Thorns On Hill At Sunrise – Redemption Concept – iStock image.
The day in the spring with an equal amount of daylight and darkness, in the latter part of March is called the Spring Equinox.
For many years the early dwellers from my coastal village would dress up in their Sunday finery on Easter Sunday, suit and tie to be sure, spats on men’s shoes. The women sported their “Easter outfit” fancy dresses, white gloves and hats that could almost have doubled as flower pots.
Or at least that’s how I remember it from my childhood days. This was a sure sign that spring was here.
Easter Sunday was also a day when one would eat, perhaps, too many eggs at breakfast time, a very old tradition.
Collection of colourful easter eggs on green grass to celebrate Easter or spring. Istock image.
Children would often punch a small hole at the top and bottom of a fresh egg to remove the inside. (Saved to be eaten later).
Later the eggshell was dried and painted in bright colors with watercolor paint. This was displayed in baskets as part of the Easter decorations.
Just like spring itself, the tradition of eggs at Easter stands for the beginning or birth. Easter was a day when all who could, would go to church. People who were “shut in” and mothers with small children who had to care for large families were excused if they did not attend mass.
For the rest of us, there was no arguing about it, we knew we had to go to church like every other Sunday of the year, plus church holidays. Those of my generation will always remember the legendary Monseigneur Thomas LeBlanc, who was parish priest of our Acadian village from 1941 to 1964.
They will also remember that the one characteristic that set him apart from others had to be his preaching. When he climbed into the pulpit, this was his arena and everyone listened.
On Easter morning, one of the few times when he did not preach on his favorite sin, (“Sins of impurity”) he would give an historical description on the events leading from Palm Sunday through Good Friday and on to the resurrection on Easter Day.
On this holy day, the parish priest was so dramatic that I have often wondered if he would not rise in the air himself and disappear through the gothic arches of St. Peters Church.
One of the early Acadian traditions on Easter Day was to gather “Easter water” (Not to be confused with holy water). This Acadian tradition is all but forgotten now but I once interviewed Eleodore d’Entremont (1910-1996) of Lower West Pubnico who had kept a bottle of Easter water in mint condition since the spring of 1917, during World War One days.
Before Eleodore could gather his bottle of water, his mother, Bertha d’Entremont, gave him the instructions on how this should be accomplished.
The water had to come from a brook running from east to west and the water had to be gathered before the sun came up on Easter morning, the person with the water had to kneel by the brook and say a silent prayer asking God to purify the water so that it could be used for curing all kinds of sickness and injuries.
On the evening before Easter, the seven-year-old went to a brook nearby and chopped a hole in the ice with his hatchet to speed things up for next morning—sort of a test run.
Next morning, he was up before the rooster had a chance to wake up the hens. The sun was not up yet and the young boy had to break the sheet ice once again before he could fill his bottle.
On this very cold morning, before sunrise, the prayer was a short one, sort of a one liner: “God, please bless this water for curing all kinds of illness”.
Many years later Eleodore d’Entremont asked Bishop Austin Burke of Yarmouth for the proper words of this prayer but the bishop, who was later Archbishop of Halifax, and now deceased, did not have any information on this ritual.
Perhaps it was only a “homemade” prayer handed from generation to generation. No one seems to remember how, or why, the idea of “Easter Water” originated.
The one thing that we know for sure is that Marie d’Entremont (widow of Eleodore), 88 when this article was written in 2005, still had the bottle of water.
After 87 years, only one third of the water has evaporated. The rest is as clear as the day it left the brook.
This could very well be the only water in Nova Scotia that has not been polluted by acid rain.
Of course, there will always be those skeptics who will debate whether this water had any medicinal or healing power.
What is not debatable however is the fact that Eleodore d’Entremont lived close to the four scores plus ten mark, his brother Isaire at the time this article was written was pushing 97, their sister Esther (a fitting name for this feature) was living in Boston and celebrated her 100th birthday on New Year’s Day. (She died in February 2005 after a short illness).
Their hardworking mother who really was a believer in “Easter Water” only lived to be 104.
A young English Bulldog wearing Easter Bunny ears sitting next to a colourful basket of eggs. Istock image.
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Laurent d’Entremont, 82, a resident of Lower West Pubnico. He wrote the article in 2005 and it was published in the Yarmouth Vanguard. Laurent recently re-published the article on Facebook and gave permission to The Notebook to publish his article.
Laurent over three decades wrote columns for NS newspapers. He collects antique cars “and I still do a bit of farming (crops), I am now 82 yrs so slowing down a bit,” he tells The Notebook. “I still talk on Information Morning on CBC radio giving the Pubnico news.”
