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Mashing themselves into the crowded bar, the group clad in costumes struck up an aged tune to the screeching of steel stringed fiddles. After talking to Mike, I shout at the group, “Gather together here and let me get a picture!” ‘Clack’ goes the shutter, and the group broke and headed into the bar attached to the Legion Hall to have the first big sing of the night. Even so, he made time to talk with me, a scraggly, caffeine-addled reporter with camera bags and recorders strapped to my back and chest. He was the human epicenter for all the activity around him. Pete’s son, Mike, is something of a gentle giant, a friendly man who loves his town and the people in it. My son has become the ring leader of sorts, so you’ll have to talk to him.” At the Legion Hall, a growing crowd of costumed participants and well-wishers were gathering. There was a time when it was seen as un-American and was suppressed by local officials and the like, but we were able to outlive all that negativity. “It’s been done going back as far as I can remember. As we ran the errand, neighbors poked their heads out their doors and yelled out things like, “Hey, Pete! Ready for tonight?” We drove to the Legion Hall as he told me more about his family’s involvement with the Guignolée. “Back in the 50s, there was a trend of French Canadians coming down here to visit and finding long lost relatives.” We dropped by his place to pick up an old French-style pot pie he had cooling for the evening, made from an ancient family recipe, he said. Pete told me he remembers hearing folks speak it when he was a boy but that those days are long gone. The use of the local dialect of Paw Paw French that was still spoken as little as thirty years ago has now become rare. Just like food, language blends with those of other cultures that it comes into contact with, such as the Spanish, Native American, German, and African cultures that were present at Ste.
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The song on the crackling old recording was sung in authentic Paw Paw French (the endangered dialect traditionally spoken here). Papin (Pete’s dad) as the soloist and leader. A producer introduced a group of the La Guignolée singers, including Mr. Intrigued, I listened as the sounds of a 1950s recording came over the car speakers. Do you think …”-“Now everything you need to know is right here,” Pete interrupted and held up an audio tape for me to see before popping it into the car stereo. “So uh, I’ve got some questions for you about the Guignolée. As we pulled out of the parking lot, I figured now was a good time to start asking questions. Pete’s father, Art, was fluent in French and served in World War I as a French translator for the American Army. Pete is an older gentleman with some seriously strong ties to Ste. I clambered into his truck for a Guignolée interview. I pulled into the Legion Hall parking lot to meet my contact in the Guignolée troupe, Pete Papin. Maybe I was a little jaded as I was getting lost in the outskirts of Ste. I was trying to get into this obscure French tradition while my family was relaxing and power eating. It was New Year’s Eve, and I was driving across the entire state of Missouri. Caroling as we know it (think figgy pudding) and La Guignolée are begging quest songs, singing in hope of small gifts of food or spirits, or both. Genevieve before 1935, and La Guillonée at Old Mines. It is called La Guiannée at Prairie du Rocher, as it was at Ste. Genevieve, the tradition can be found in places where the French culture has spread, including along the Mississippi in a few select towns, such Old Mines, Missouri, and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois.
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The La Guignolée has a proven history in France going back to the 1600s and was brought here in the 18th and 19th centuries. in Francophone Studies (the study of French-speaking cultures), provides some historical context. Nowadays the descendants of the original French settlers meet every New Year’s Eve to keep traditions alive. It’s called the La Guignolée (pronounced gee-oh-nee) and it’s possibly the oldest continual tradition of European origin in Missouri.
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Genevieve’s settlement in the 1730s and 1740s, the locals gathered in homes, taverns, and billiard halls to sing and dance. Nearly every New Year’s Eve going back to Ste.