Culture celebrated at St. Michael's School

Carnaval de Sucre celebrations

Toni Lucas

St. Michael's School celebrated local, national, and international culture and heritage on Friday, March 28.  Themes included local Blackfoot culture, an eastern-Canada flavoured Carnaval des Sucres, and an international food festival.

^ Video:  Mrs. Jennifer Parker introduces the Carnaval with Brooklynn and Tonika

Metis 'Lumberjack' John Girard applauds the singing competition

The elementary students held a 'Carnaval des Sucres'. This is a winter festival originally celebrated where sugar maples grow in eastern Canada. The high point of the 'Sugar Shack' is boiling off sugar maple sap and pouring it onto fresh snow to make instant candy.

The students were organized into teams with names like the Ice Warriors, Lumberjacks, Great Canadian Beavers, and Hungry Wolves.  The teams competed for medals in hockey, Frisbee snow golf, potato sack races, a Bonhomme de Carnaval ball toss, three legged races, and song composition and execution, all the while having fun outdoors. 

Block the net!

The Hungry Wolves howled out their song!

Bonhomme de Carnaval ball toss from the front

Ball toss from the back

Photographer, beware!

Life is a Carnaval!

Icy Pete is one cool character

Easton proves he can be a real angel

To wrap up the celebration the students enjoyed sugaring-off,  popsicle sticks covered with maple syrup taffy and snow.

Mr. Girard spoons up the syrup

Middle school students from grades 6 - 8 held a Heritage Day food festival. "The food festival was to introduce the students in the TAC (Teacher Assisted Class) classes to different cultures," said teacher Mrs. Joanne Mack. "They could appreciate different food, different music, different customs. Each group got to choose two cultures, then prepared food that represented those cultures." Mexico, Korea, and Germany were a small sampling of the nations that were represented. "It was a really good experience for them."

Dishing out samples at the Food Festival

Marlon Strikes With A Gun met with students to talk about Blackfoot culture. He discussed differences and similarities between the traditional Blackfoot culture and modern western Canadian culture. A few of the aspects of Blackfoot culture he talked about included the ceremonial pipe, sweat lodges, smudging, and he also demonstrated some hand drumming and dancing.

Marlon Strikes With A Gun discussing balance

He spoke to the students about balance. He outlined four aspects of life including spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical, and explained the importance of having balance between them. Equating each of these to a tire on a vehicle, he explained that if one or more of these aspects were lacking or exaggerated, achieving your goals on the journey through life would be more difficult if not impossible to achieve.

Connor in the ball hockey net before the group celebrations started