For the 33rd year in a row, the rural community of Christmas Island, N.S. — a small Cape Breton village along the Bras d’or Lake that is steeped in Celtic culture — held a Gaelic summer day camp for children.
"As the aging population goes, Gaelic is coming back in a resurgence,” camp organizer and Gaelic speaker Meaghan O’Handley said.
“You know, the power is in the youth so we have to get them involved and interested - and doing it in a fun way is always the best way to go."
Each camp game introduces a few Gaelic words or phrases.
It's not expected that children will go home fully bilingual. Rather, it's a chance for campers to become more comfortable with the language of their ancestors.
Camp counsellor Maryanna MacNeil has been showing the children fiddling and step dancing.
"My dad is in a band called The Barra MacNeils, so I was kind of able to be immersed into the culture,” MacNeil explained.
"Teaching what my uncles taught me to the kids, it's really special to me and I'm really liking seeing the kids playing along and passing everything down. It's pretty cool."
Camper Archie MacDonald is among the youngsters who has had the advantage of hearing the language at home.
"My Mom, she's pretty good at speaking Gaelic,” MacDonald said.
The same is true for six-year-old Rosie MacDonald, who said she likes that at camp “you get to have new friends and you get to play a lot of games.
The Gaelic camp is part of the 33rd annual community festival in the area called Feis an Eilein, which translates to English as ‘Festival of the Island.’
"There used to be a lot of Gaelic speakers in the area, a lot of Scottish descendants, and the Gaelic here is still pretty strong,” O’Handley said.
Friday, the campers will show some of what they've learned in a concert as the week's events wind down.
The Feis an Eilein festival wraps up Saturday.
