Among the dignitaries present were the President of the Autonomous Region of the Azores Carlos Cesar, and his wife, Luiza Cesar, Portuguese Ambassador, His Excellency, Jose Luis Gomes, the Regional Director for the Communities, Alzira Silva, the Portuguese Consul-General Nuno Bello, the Mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, Laval Town Councillor, Richard Goyer, Liberal Party MP, Raymonde Fulco, Rev. Father Jose Arruda and the President of 1st Festival's Organizing Committee, Antonio Fernando Azera da Silva.

The Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal, His Excellency, André Rivest, celebrated Mass. Next, the famous, traditional Holy Spirit Soup were served. In the afternoon a lively fiesta with music by the Laval Band A Filarmonica do Divino Espírito Santo and Toronto singer, Otília de Jesus

The island of the Azorean archipelago, Madeira and Tomar were represented at the fiesta in an exhibition of Impérios or Holy Spirit Chapels. Each império offered visitors a taste of the region's gastronomic specialities and wines. Leonildo Miranda held the first exhibition of the kind in these parts in 1995.

In the evening, draws to determine who was to have the Holy Spirit Crowns in their homes during the seven Sundays ou Domingas after Easter.

On the evening of Monday, May 27, a formal dinner in Laval marked the official closing of the Festival. During the dinner, Carlos Cesar, President of the Regional Government of the Azores, delivered a magnificent speech on the Azorean reality in the modern world and the role of the Azores in the preservation of our cultural and linguistic patrimony for future generations.

"I wish to leave this sentiment - a sentiment of trust and profound hope in the future of the Azores. The very same sentiment with which thousands and thousands of Azoreans departed, at a time when trust and hope did not reside on our islands…"

(Translation by Adiaspora.com of an excerpt from the speech delivered by the President of the Regional Government of the Azores at the Closing of the 1st Festival of Azorean Culture in Quebec)

Adiaspora.com wishes to congratulate Antonio Azera da Silva and the other members of the Festival's Organizing Committee for this admirable effort, which promises to enliven the Luso-Canadian cultural agenda for years to come!

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Mr. And Mrs. Manuel Elíseu Cota & Mr. And Mrs. Victor Medina for their unfaltering support without which this article would never have been possible.