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Experiencing the Cajun culture is like no other. The Acadians of today are a thrifty, hard-working, fun-loving, devout religious folk. They work and play with equal enthusiasm.
The word Cajun began in 19th century Acadie (now Nova Scotia) when the Acadians began to arrive. The French of noble ancestry would say, "les Acadiens", while some referred to the Acadians as, "le 'Cadiens", dropping the "A". Later came the Americans who could not pronounce "Acadien" or "'Cadien", so the word, "Cajun" was born.
The Cajun's pleasure-loving nature expresses itself in the community festivals, dancing and food that are integral parts of bayou life. Cajuns are known for their "joie de vivre" (joy of living), and to add excitement to their food they experiment with herbs, spices and ingredients to create some of the most flavorful dishes that people throughout North America now enjoy.
One of the traditional favorite Cajun pastimes is an old- fashioned crawfish boil. When the sacred "mud bugs" or "crawdads" go into the pot a breath of excitement fills the air. Before the great feast of the boiled crawfish, potatoes, onions and corn, youngsters make a mad dash for the crawfish tub poking the live crawfish with sticks while other family members participate in crawfish races.
Boiling crawfish is not the only way to enjoy the crustaceans. When crawfish go into the pot a number of delicious dishes result because there are almost as many ways to cook crawfish as there are swamps, ponds and ditches in which to catch them. Crawfish are served up in gumbo, bisque, étouffée, jambalaya, pies or patties. When the Cajuns aren't eating crawfish, they enjoy other world famous cuisine of Louisiana such as oysters, shrimp, boudin, pralines, gumbo and red beans and rice.
What better way to experience Cajun food than at a festival? Any time is festival time in Cajun Country. Towns and villages throughout Acadiana celebrate every season with their special blend of music, food and the colorful Cajun heritage. Most festivals feature live music of all sorts, contests, native crafts and food and, of course, dancing.
Cajun music is also distinctive. It can be lively or melancholy, and sometimes both at the same time. The main reason why many attend festivals is for the unique Cajun music. Cajun music, once deemed as "nothing but chank-a-chank" has infiltrated radio, television and classrooms and is becoming world famous for its unique sounds of instruments like accordions, fiddles and triangles.
One of the largest festivals is our world-famous Mardi Gras. Celebrate an old-fashioned Mardi Gras at the Courir du Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras Run), one of the local traditions that makes Mardi Gras in Cajun Country truly unique. The spectacle celebrated in small towns and villages in Acadiana is a favorite of visitors interested in off-the-beaten-path experiences. With its roots firmly in the medieval tradition of ceremonial begging, bands of masked and costumed horseback and wagon riders led by the unmasked "Le Captaine" roam the countryside "begging for ingredients for their community gumbo. The day's festivities end with a fais-do-do and, of course, lots of savory gumbo.
In Cajun Country, a week hardly goes by without chants of praise to crawfish, rice, alligators, cotton, boudin, yams, gumbo and andouille, all the necessities of bayou life. Within the triangle of Acadiana's 22 parishes, you'll experience the "joie de vivre" of the Cajun lifestyle. Whether in food, music or fun, the Cajun tradition continues to live on in the hearts of Cajuns and visitors alike.
Culture, not blood, defines today's Cajun
© Jim Bradshaw, Lafayette Daily Advertiser
The 700,000 Acadians who live in South Louisiana make up the largest French-speaking minority in the United States. They are descendants of some of the first white men to settle North America, coming from Brittany, Poitou, Normandy and across France to establish their first permanent colony in what is now Nova Scotia. That was in 1604, three years before Jamestown, four years before Quebec, and 15 years before the Mayflower.
They were forced from their Canadian homes a century and a half later, and eventually settled in South Louisiana. Some settled along the Mississippi River above New Orleans. Others migrated to wetlands along Bayou Lafourche. Another group crossed the Atchafalaya Basin to the country of the Attakapas and Opelousas Indians, near today's cities of St. Martinville and Lafayette.
Each of these groups lived in relative isolation from the Anglos, and to some extent, from each other, and developed in different ways. (There is, for example, no single "Cajun French" language, but distinguishable - to the trained ear - regional dialects, all based upon the original Acadian French, alike in sound and rhythm, but often with distinctive phrases and modes of expression. And you can start a battle royal among different Cajuns over just which instruments are proper to "authentic" Cajun music.)
The Cajuns were for several generations largely an unschooled and unlettered people, living simple lives, keeping to themselves, their families and their lands. Because of this, the Cajun was often, and mistakenly, portrayed as a likeable buffoon; an ignorant, French-speaking, backwards swampbilly, scraping a bare existence from his surroundings; a pleasant, easy-going peasant who has nothing and wants less, as long as he can go to the fais-do-do (dance) on Saturday and to Mass on Sunday.
Listen to Richard Ketchum, writing as late as 1974 in the American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places:
"(Cajuns) speak an ancient French dialect which few outsiders can follow . . . Mixing little with the modern world, they earn a living by fishing, boating, trapping, and by selling handwoven baskets and cloth. In a region of few roads, they live on simple wooden houseboats, dependent upon the waterways and the pirogue . . ."
In many places they were called "coonasses." Some of them call themselves that still. The bumper sticker, "Coonass and Proud", still bedecks many a pickup truck.
But times have changed, and so have the Cajuns. The shantyboat is no longer first choice for economical housing, and some of them live in real houses, on dry land, with paved sidewalks leading right down to paved roadways. More Cajuns have pickup trucks than pirogues. Few Cajuns sell handwoven cloth or homemade (SEE NEXT PAGE)
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