Tabagie (feast)

Tabagie is a Mi'kmaq word, often found in historical descriptions of solemn feasts in Quebec and Maritime Canada. A tribal unit would call a tabagie to observe a solemn event, such as (but not limited to) the imminent death of a senior tribal member.[1] The term is also found in The Voyages of Samuel De Champlain, as Algonquins prepare to "put to death their prisoners in a festive tabagie".[citation needed] On 27 May 1603, a solemn tabagie or "feast" held at Tadoussac "reunited the Frenchmen Gravé du Pont and Champlain with the Montagnais, the Algonquins, and the Etchimins," and marked the beginning of an enduring alliance between these peoples.[2] The term may be derived from tabac (tobacco), which was smoked as an essential element of the ceremony of the feast.[3]

  1. ^ Erik R. Seeman (28 September 2011). Death in the New World: Cross-Cultural Encounters, 1492-1800. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-0-8122-0600-5. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. ^ "France in America: The Foundation of the Alliances / La France en Amérique: La fondation des alliances". Library of Congress Global Gateway, France in America. Retrieved 2013-07-07.
  3. ^ Conrad Heidenreich; K. Janet Ritch (11 November 2010). Samuel de Champlain before 1604: Des Sauvages and other Documents Related to the Period. MQUP. pp. 257–. ISBN 978-0-7735-9100-4. Retrieved 7 July 2013.