On Sunday, June 28, residents of the St. John Valley will gather to celebrate Maine Acadian Day, in honor of the first families who began the French settlement in 1785 in what then was known as the Madawaska Territory.
The ceremony has been an annual event since June 28, 1978, when Maine Acadian Day was proclaimed by the Madawaska Board of Selectmen, the Maine State Legislature and Gov. James Longley.
On the day of that first celebration in 1978, the Acadian flag flew over the Maine Capitol, the first time any flag other than the Maine Standard had been flown there. The date was chosen based on the oral history of the Valley that the first settlers who had left St. Anne in New Brunswick arrived that day on the shores of the river at what is now St. David.
In 2024, Gov. Janet Mills signed a proclamation making June 28 Maine Acadian Day in perpetuity.
A French Acadian Mass at 9 a.m. in St. David Church will begin this year’s celebration.
Guests can then make their way down to the Memorial Cross site for a few words by local officials, a landing reenactment and a welcome by Shawn Francis, a representative of the local Maliseet First Nation, whose land this was when the Acadians arrived. The ceremony will take place at 10 a.m.
Around 11 a.m., a traditional meal of chicken stew, baked beans, fiddleheads, creton and ployes will be served at the site. The meal will be free but donations to the Madawaska Historical Society will be welcome.
