156 THEISLAND ACADIANS

The convention in Memramcook and subsequent conventions were important events that attracted crowds of more than five thousand people. About two hundred Acadians from Prince Edward Island attended the gathering in Memramcook. Not everyone took part in the discussions. The study sessions were reserved for the delegates representing each parish, members of the clergy ministering to Acadians, Acadian members of Parliament and other public figures appointed by the organizing committee. The public only attended the religious ceremonies and the plenary sessions where they listened to reports on the discussions and stirring patriotic speeches. The convention provided the occasion for a welcome picnic where everyone enjoyed various forms of entertainment.

In the study sessions the delegates discussed virtually every aspect of Acadian life: the French language, education, agriculture, emigra- tion, colonization, trade, industry, the French language press, and above all national symbols. The delegates at the 1881 convention chose a national holiday, the Feast of the Assumption, celebrated on the 15th of August. Other symbols that would help unite Acadians and distinguish them from other peoples in the country were chosen during the second convention, held in Miscouche in 1884. The French tricolour with a gold star in the blue stripe was adopted as the Acadian flag, and the tune of the Latin hymn in honour of the Virgin, Ave Maris Stella, was chosen as the national anthem. The motto, L’union fait la force (Strength through Union), was selected along with a badge which portrayed a star, a sail boat and the Acadian motto'’®.

The national conventions aroused a spirit of nationalism and patriotism in the Acadians on the Island that impelled them to fight harder against creeping anglicization. Participants from the mainland attending the 1884 congress in Miscouche were astonished to discover the extent to which the Acadian community on the Island had been anglicized. Very disturbed by this fact, an Acadian from the Island wrote the following in the Moniteur Acadien several months after the great gathering:

During the convention in 1884, I must admit that I was ashamed to hear the way my fellow Islanders spoke to each other. It seems to me that it must have been annoying for outsiders to see their brothers from the Island forever talking in English in an Acadian assembly, or to be more exact, an Acadian convention. Everything was in English: dinner tickets, programme, mottos, etc. (TR)'*!