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A lively, educational bus tour will celebrate one of Connecticut’s signature resources – maple syrup – and its roots in French Canadian culture. Guided by Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP) Director Lynne Williamson, tour participants will visit the 18th Annual Maple Festival in Hebron to learn about the production of maple syrup and then travel to East Hartford for a traditional French-Canadian soirée. The tour is a collaboration between CHAP, a program of The Institute for Community Research (ICR), and Manchester Community College. The tour bus will depart from Manchester Community College’s Parking Lot C on Saturday, March 8, 2008, at 10 am, and will return to MCC by 7 pm. The fee for the tour, which includes transportation, food at the soirée, and entertainment, is $75.
After observing maple sugar production and sampling syrup at several sugar houses, tour participants will have time to attend other Maple Festival activities such as craft demonstrations, agricultural displays, and historical exhibitions. In the late afternoon participants will travel to East Hartford’s French Social Circle hall for a soirée showcasing French Canadian culture, history, and food. Led by Connecticut Franco-American fiddle master Daniel Boucher, a group of musicians will play and sing traditional songs in an informal setting. Typical French food will be served, including meat pie (tourtière), beans and ham, pea soup, and maple products. The French-Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut will speak about that organization’s 25 years of conducting research on the thousands of French immigrants who have settled in Connecticut.
Over 300,000 Connecticut residents state their ancestry as French or part French, according to the 2000 census. Tour leader Lynne Williamson has worked with Connecticut French Canadians for ten years, documenting their traditional cultural activities and organizing projects that help to maintain language and traditional arts within the community. “Their families originated primarily in Quebec and moved to Connecticut and other New England states to work in factories, often textile mills, in the early 20th century,” says Williamson. “Another group with French heritage, known as Acadians, moved to Connecticut from Maine and the Canadian maritime provinces. Tapping maple trees for syrup was an important early spring activity in Canada, and it has remained an agricultural tradition here in Connecticut.”
Williamson organized the soirée in partnership with the French Social Circle of Hartford, Inc., an East Hartford-based organization that has promoted the social, civic, and national interests of those of French descent since 1925.
This tour is the second in a series of four that explore Connecticut communities with fascinating heritage and cultural activities. In April and June 2008, additional tours will focus on Eastern European and Cape Verdean artists and festivals in Connecticut. The bus tours are organized by ICR in partnership with Manchester Community College. The bus tours series is also supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. For more information about the tour, please call Lynne Williamson at 860-278-2044 x 251 or email her at Lynne.Williamson@icrweb.org. Advanced registration is required; please call Manchester Community College Continuing Education at 860-512-3232 or 860-512-2800 to register.
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The Institute for Community Research is an independent research institute that conducts applied research and supports community enhancement programs on issues of health, education and cultural heritage. Its Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program encourages and promotes traditional artists and their communities through an active process of documentation, technical assistance, and public presentations to bring their work and the history of their communities to new audiences.
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