Legal was yet another centre in Northern Alberta which attracted French-Canadians from the United States and Quebec. This unidentified photograph (c. 1900), taken on the day of the First Communion, is striking because of the house or church in the background. The sharp and overhanging roof is reminiscent of eighteenth and nineteenth century Quebec architecture. Note also the log construction and the unusually high walls.
Girls dressed in white on the day of their first communion, and the boys wore armbands. The parish priest at centre is wearing a top hat. First Communion Sunday was only one of the many occasions for religious and social gatherings in pioneer communities. Sunday services, annual retreats, the clergy's traditional annual visit of all parishioners, along with Easter, Christmas, and New Year's celebrations, offered other opportunities for a close relationship of members of the parish.
Courtesy: The Provincial Museum and Archives of Alberta.
