VI. Breton culture experience

    A. Fest Noz

        1. A fest noz is a traditional breton evening celebration, combining music and dance. Generation gaps disappear
as 50-somethings dance hand-in-hand with teenagers. The ensuing ambiance is quite remarkable.

        2. Breton Music -- (excellent Guide to Music in Brittany, external link...read the disclaimer.)
            The music is always in the Breton tradition. Bands tend to be local, almost house bands. The traditional Breton
instruments include the diatonic accordion, the bombarde, the pennywhistle, the fiddle, and the biniou.
Recently, these traditional instruments have been combined with electric guitars and full drum sets, adding rock
influences. This new wave of Breton music and Breton bands is commonly credited with the newfound interest in breton
tradition among young people. Traditional bands include the famous Tri Yann (Three Johns in Breton). Newer celtic/Breton-rock
bands include Armens. (Other celtic rock from this side of the Atlantic includes Glengarry Bhoys, Mackeel, and
Seven Nations.)

        3. Traditional breton dances range from very simple and accesible to more complex. Consisting almost exclusively
of short footwork patterns, most dances are relatively easily learned and remembered. They are generally danced
in a circle or weaving line, holding hands or linking pinkies. Each dance also has a name, such as the Andro (from
the Andro region) and the Scottish.

    B. The Breton Language (external link...disclaimer)

        1. In historical Brittany, two languages were spoken: Breton and Gaul. Imagine a line stretching from St-Brieuc
in the north to Vannes in the south. To the west, in “low Brittany,” Breton was the maternal
language, while to the east, in “high Brittany,” Gaul predominated.

        2. The hardest era for Brittany was after the Revolution, the 3rd Republic, which started in 1880. Article Two 
declared that France was "One and Indivisible"... In the name of this indivisibility, the right to speak regional languages 
was repealed. This included Breton. The governent started with the children. One of the ministers (governmental, not
religious) said to the school teachers, "You are no longer here to teach, but to kill the Breton language."

	Recently, there has been much controversy surrounding the use and instruction of regional languages in France.
In the constitution of the republic, it states that France is "One and Unique." According to some politicians,
the use of regional languages divides the country and therfore is unconstitutional.

        3. Brittany existed as its own country until 1532. However, they still have not truly lost their
independent spirit.

        4. There is a comprehensive educational system called Diwan that teaches Breton from an extremely young age.
Children are spoken to uniquely in Breton from the ages of three to six. The instruction is then bilingual throughout
elementary school, then trilingual (Breton-French-English) in middle school. All teachers are native speakers of
the language they instruct, and relevent classes such as British and American history are taught *in English.*
The use of the total immersion concept makes for very talented and fluent students very quickly. The national examination
at the end of middle school (le brevet, see School) is administered trilingually. This system is very new, founded
only in the 1970s, and therefore there is only one Diwan high school for all of Brittany, and its program is still
evolving.

        5. Interesting tri-lingual (English-Breton-French) internet glossary!! (external link...please read my disclaimer.)
    C. Breton Food -- The ultimate Breton meal comprises galettes and hard cider.

        1. Galettes are not easy to explain to Americans. Take your idea of a French Crèpe. Make it savory, not
sweet. (They are made with water, buckwheat flour, eggs and salt.) Put it in a float, round pan. Put your toppings
on -- egg, cheese, ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, and anything else you want. Stir these all together with a fork or
wooden spoon until the egg is cooked. Then finally, fold the sides in to make a kind of rectangle, almost like
folding a burrito, only it's flat. Voilà une galette! Mmmm....

        2. Hard cider

Return to Perspectives: my year in Brittany.
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