Christmas traditions at the Fortress of Louisbourg.
Much of what we do at Christmas was also done hundreds of years ago
In New France family, friends and neighbours gathered to share meals, dance and stories on Christmas.
These community parties celebrated the birth of Jesus but also the end of Advent. The parties often lasted long into the night, especially when a community had access to a musician.
In Louisbourg these Christmas traditions were continued. In 1752 the residents of Louisbourg celebrated Christmas Eve with a midnight mass in the Chapelle Saint-Louis in the King’s Bastion.
Unlike the English, the French did not give gifts at Christmas. They tended to celebrate Christmas with religious devotion. The people of Louisbourg likely continued the Christmas traditions that were popular in France. Learning about the Christmas traditions in France can shed light on the traditions that may have been practiced at the Fortress of Louisbourg.
The centre of most French Christmas traditions was the birth of Jesus. The story of Jesus’ birth was celebrated in a wide variety of ways from storytelling to festivities.
French Christmas was a religious celebration. Kings and queens attended mass along with the rich and the poor during the Christmas season. These masses were held at midnight and attended by almost everyone in a village.
Upon returning home after mass, families held a late supper. Each region in France celebrated with a different food. In Alsace they eat goose; in Breton they eat buckwheat cakes and sour cream; in Burgundy they eat turkey and chestnuts and in Paris they eat oysters and foie gras. Perhaps in Louisbourg they ate cod or moose for Christmas dinner.
Storytelling played an important role in French Christmas traditions. As religious services were performed in Latin, and most of the population did not speak Latin, telling the story of the birth of Jesus in the vernacular was an important way to teach the population about the birth of Jesus.
The history of the tradition of the Christmas nativity scene dates back to 1223. Saint Francis celebrated the birth of Jesus by re-creating the scene in the hills near Assisi Italy. Saint Francis’ scene featured a manger filled with hay, a wax image of the Baby Jesus in a humble crib and a real ox and donkey.
The saint then gathered the local villagers and shepherds to tell them the story of Christ’s birth.
Soon the tradition of the nativity spread across Italy and into France. The first manager scene, or crèche, ever recorded
in France was in Avignon between 1316 and 1334. Legend claims that it was a member of Saint Francis’ family that brought this tradition to France.
As the tradition grew, people began to represent local people and local occupations in their scenes. Eventually, the scene became miniaturized and were featured in people’s homes as a means to tell the story of the birth of Christ. In Provence, artisans created terra cotta nativity figures called santons. These were highly sought after Christmas items.
Another form of storytelling were religious dramas called mystery or miracle plays. These were plays that re-enacted scenes from the Bible and they began to be performed in France during the Middle Ages. They began in churches but moved outside to the church square. These plays were created to educate the people about their
religious traditions. These were particularly important at Christmas time when the church celebrated the birth of Jesus.
Originally featured as part of the mystery plays, by 1600 Christmas carols could be found in every province in France in the regional language. Traditional Christmas music in the church were sung in Latin, but Christmas carols were written in the vernacular to be sung by the general population. As these were not publications of the church, the printed copies of these songs were circulated by peddlers.
Christmas trees were not very popular in France but there are records of the first Christmas trees in France dating back to the early 1600s. The first recorded-appearance was in Alsace-Lorraine along the German border. Here the trees were evergreens decorated with paper roses, apples, candy and sugary cookie wafers.
Burning the yule log was also an important French Christmas tradition. Originally a Nordic tradition the yule log was a whole tree, often cherry, that was brought into the house and the large end placed in the fireplace. The rest of the tree would stick out into the room. Over the 12 days of Christmas the log was slowly fed into the fire. Families would carefully chose their tree and if any was left after the 12th night it was kept safe until the following Christmas.
Many believed that the log had magical powers. For example if the log sparked frequently, that was an indication of a great harvest the following year. Sometimes, families would sprinkle the log with wine so that it would smell nice when it burned.