On This Day: How lobster supper became a P.E.I. tradition

Lobster suppers have been a tradition on P.E.I. for decades something that was the subject of a national news report on CBCTelevision 30 years ago.

"If you just can't take any more of the sane tranquillityhere on Prince Edward Island," is how reporter Dan Bjarnasonstarts his piece, which aired onThe Nationalon July 19, 1988 directing viewers to seek out a lobster supper.

Who started the tradition of the lobster supper is up for debate but FatherDenis Gallant of St. Ann's Parish in Hope River, P.E.I., doesn't hesitate in takingfull credit.

"It started with me," said Gallant. "This idea of lobster suppers that you hear very much advertised originated here at St. Ann's actually originated in that little brain up there."

He says the church held its first lobster supper as a fundraiser, later expanding it to feed and entertainhungry travellers and locals.

Gallant died in 2000 and St. Ann's stopped hosting lobster suppers in 2015 however a lobster supper can still be found in many places across P.E.I.

'Inventor' of the lobster supper

36 years ago

Duration 2:30

A PEI priest claims to be the mastermind behind the lobster dinner.

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