Field dispatch · living culture
A hooked line through Acadian history.
Chéticamp is a working French-speaking fishing village whose rug-hooking tradition became internationally known — and whose Mi-Carême folk custom is still practised today.
- Community
- Chéticamp
- Craft
- Rug hooking
- Museum
- Les Trois Pignons
- Folk tradition
- Centre de la Mi-Carême
Field note 01 / craft
A fishing village’s craft became its calling card.
Rug hooking — pulling loops of fabric or wool through a woven backing to build an image — developed in Chéticamp as a practical craft that became a recognized art form. Les Trois Pignons houses a well-known collection of hooked tapestries, including work associated with local artist Elizabeth LeFort, alongside genealogical and community history exhibits.
Read the full Chéticamp guide
Field note 02 / Mi-Carême
A masked mid-Lent tradition, still practised.
Mi-Carême is a mid-Lent Acadian folk custom in which masked, costumed visitors go house to house and are welcomed in for food and music before revealing their identity — one of the oldest surviving Acadian traditions in Nova Scotia. The Centre de la Mi-Carême in Chéticamp-area Grand-Étang preserves the custom’s history and, in some years, hosts related community events; confirm current programming before planning a visit around it.
