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placed in the room. Friends and relatives kept vigil over the body for two days and, at various moments, recited prayers for the dead, the rosary and litanies. They also sang hymns, a tradition which was lost at the end of the nineteenth century®.

The body was then carried to the church, draped for the funeral service, and finally taken to the cemetery to be buried in the presence of the priest, the family and friends. The priest recited the last prayers asking the Lord to have mercy on the soul of the deceased. Finally, the priest threw a shovelful of earth on the coffin which had been lowered into the grave, and declaim: “Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.”

Acadians had a great deal of respect for the dead and did not forget them in their prayers. An effort was made to have a Mass sung regularly for the repose of their souls. It was believed that deceased persons who benefited from fifteen masses said for their intention would go to heaven®’. Acadians who had the means almost always left a certain sum in their will so that masses would be celebrated for the repose of their soul.

FROM ADVENT TO ALL SOULS’ DAY

In addition to the daily and weekly exercises that punctuated the spiritual life of the Acadians, the Church had a calendar year filled with religious activities that all Catholics made it their duty to observe. The calendar included periods of penitence and prayer along with numerous feasts of obligation such as Epiphany (January 6), All Saints’ Day (November 1) and the Immaculate Conception (December 8) which were to be observed to the same degree as Sundays. We will examine briefly some of these religious traditions.

Advent opened the liturgical year of the Catholic Church. It is a four week period of spiritual preparation for Christmas. In the past, there were no dances or marriages during this period and people carried out various penitences such as giving up candies and sweets. Christmas was essentially a religious festivity that began with midnight Mass. As is the case today, the priest and the choir took great pains to prepare for this celebration, one of the happiest and most beautiful of the year. On Christmas afternoon families would go to the church where children could see the créche. On New Year’s Day, a holy day