FESTIVAL KREOL SUNDAY CELEBRATED WITH A MASS IN CREOLE LANGUAGE
(Posted 28th October 2013)
The Au Cap district church on the Seychelles’ main island of Mahe was the centre of worship yesterday when hundreds of Catholic faithful attended a special mass, celebrated in Creole language, to mark this year’s 28th Festival Kreol. Present at the mass was the Minister for Tourism and Culture Mr. Alain St. Ange, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry overseeing Culture Benjamine Rose, other ministry officials, the area member of parliament and local administration officials in recognition of the effort to celebrate mass in their own language.
Hymns and readings had been translated into Creole to hold the entire service, sermon included in the language which unites Seychellois like few other things.
Speakers, including the Minister, urged the faithful to continue using their own language in church and everyday life throughout the year, not just during the Festival Kreol, but going by my own experience, Creole is truly spoken very widely and very regularly by the people of the archipelago.
The Festival Kreol programme continues this week until the 31st of October with a series of events and commemorations and recognitions for artists and poets. Later this morning will a special plaque be unveiled at ‘Venn’s Town – Mission Lodge’, the site of the first school for the children of slaves before slavery was abolished and reported here some time ago when the Seychelles government had applied to UNESCO to award a special cultural World Heritage Site status to Mission Lodge, a decision for which is still pending.
From there will a visit take place to the Creole Institute in Au Cap, the presently only institution of its kind promoting the use of the Creole language and giving a platform for research and scientific study of all things Creole, no matter where in the world members of the Creole nation are found. Watch this space for more updates from the Seychelles this week.
