by Morinville News Staff
Blue, white and pink flags will soon be flying over municipalities in Alberta as communities raise the Franco-Albertan flag in honour of Rendez-vous de la Francophonie (RVF), running Mar. 3 to 23. This year’s theme is La Francophonie en 3D : Diversité, Dualité, Dynamisme!
Morinville will raise the flag at noon Mar. 4 in St. Jean Baptiste Park.
Jean-Pierre Grenier created the Franco-Albertan flag as an entry in a Francophone Youth of Alberta contest. In March of 1982, French-Canadian Association of Alberta adopted the design.
The flag has a fleur-de-lys in the upper left corner and a wild rose, the provincial flower of Alberta, in the lower right. The field of blue represents the province while the white represents the Francophone. The blue and white stripes represent the waters and roads travelled throughout Alberta by Francophone explorers, settlers and colonists.
The provincial flag raising is part of the launch of the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie, an initiative of the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue, a group which promotes and supports dialogue between the Francophone and Acadian, and all other communities in Canada.
But the flag raising is the start to a day of community activities that celebrate Francophone culture and heritage.
The flag raising will be followed by school presentations at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre from 1 p.m. until 2:30 p.m., and static displays from noon until 9 p.m.
Once again this year, the Town of Morinville will be hosting a Francophone celebration in the evening at the cultural centre.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and a supper of poutine and salad will be served from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Entertainment by Le Fuzz and Dance, a multilingual world beat folk band from Edmonton, will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The event is sponsored by the Town of Morinville, Morinville Historical and Cultural Society, The Vol. 4 History Committee, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Centralta Region of the ACFA.
More than 9.5 million Canadians speak French, including 538,000 in Alberta. French is the first language of 67,000 Albertans.
For more info on Rendezvous la Francophonie, visit RVF.ca.
