Culture of Louisiana

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The culture of Louisiana involves its music, food, religion, clothing, language, architecture, art, literature, games, and sports. Often, these elements are the basis for one of the many festivals in the state. Louisiana, while sharing many similarities to its neighbors along the Gulf Coast, is unique in the influence of Louisiana French culture, due to the historical waves of immigration of French-speaking settlers to Louisiana. Likewise, African-American culture plays a prominent role. While New Orleans, as the largest city, has had an outsize influence on Louisiana throughout its history, other regions both rural and urban have contributed their shared histories and identities to the culture of the state.

Contents

Religion

The first non-Native American religion in Louisiana was Roman Catholicism, as a result of the predominantly Catholic French and Spanish control of colonial Louisiana. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Protestantism was introduced to the territory. Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians were later joined by other Protestant traditions such as Lutherans, who were often German immigrants. Louisiana remains a cultural pot with many different religions. More recent immigrants have brought Buddhism and Islam, etc. into Louisiana. [2] Also, Voodoo is often practiced in south Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. [3] [4]

Music

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New Orleans is deeply rooted in the deep tradition of Louisiana jazz music. A unique clash that reached its heart in the dynamic city of New Orleans, where Creole culture had a vital influence, which is how jazz origins are generally described: as a musical gumbo.  [6] Business women in New Orleans who held parties helped to foster the early development of jazz music. [7] Additionally, the growth of jazz at the turn of the twentieth century was heavily influenced by the French Creoles of Louisiana. [8]

Food

The state is predominantly known for both its Cajun cuisine, Creole cuisine, and Native American cuisine.

Creole cuisine is influenced by traditional French cooking with Spanish, African, and Indian influences. [9] Cajun cuisine is one of the most popular cuisines in the United States. People in Southern Louisiana say that others eat to live, while they live to eat. [10]

Although the food most identified with the state is the Cajun and Creole food of South Louisiana, North Louisiana also has its own unique cuisine. Traditionally, southern style soul food such as smothered pork chops, chicken and dumplings, candied yams, hot water cornbread, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and black-eyed peas are commonly eaten in North Louisiana. Natchitoches is famous for its meat pie. For many years, crawfish were not eaten outside of Cajun country. People north of Alexandria were more likely to eat fried chicken or barbecue. Fish fries featuring catfish took the place of crawfish boils. Today, boiled crawfish is served throughout the state.

Other foods popular in Louisiana include gumbo, etouffée, jambalaya, muffuletta, po'boy, and red beans and rice. Seafood is especially popular in Louisiana either as an ingredient or as a main dish such as shrimp, crawfish, crabs, oysters and catfish. Swamp denizens such as gator, frog legs, and turtle soup is popular around the bayous of south Louisiana.

Famous desserts and snacks include king cake, beignets, pralines, sweet potato pie and pecan pie.

Festivals and carnivals

Mardi Gras 2023 - On the streets of the French Quarter, New Orleans, 10 February 2023 - 10.jpg

[11]

Mardi Gras has its roots in medieval Europe and traveled to the French House of the Bourbons in the 17th and 18th centuries through Rome and Venice. From this point on, France's custom of celebrating "Boeuf Gras," or fattened calf, spread throughout her colonies. [12]

Bienville founded New Orleans in 1718. Mardi Gras was publicly observed in New Orleans by the 1730s, though not with the parades that are familiar to us today. The Marquis de Vaudreuil, the governor of Louisiana, created sophisticated social balls in the early 1740s, which served as the inspiration for modern-day Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans. [12]

The term "Carnival" associated with Mardi Gras first surfaced in a 1781 report to the Spanish colonial government. That year hundreds of clubs and carnival groups were founded in New Orleans, the first of which was the Perseverance Benevolent & Mutual Aid Association. [12]

In 1971, the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce, together with a local nonprofit group, the Jaycees, imagined a festival that would celebrate the town's bountiful harvest and bring the community together. This led to the creation of the inaugural Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival, founded in 1972. Starting with a small 11-booth setup on North 6th Street, it was the start of an annual tradition that would quickly expand. The first festival attracted about 15,000 attendees and set the stage for the state's second-largest free event, which now brings in over 300,000 people annually. [13]

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Sports

Sports are very popular in Louisiana. American football is the most popular sport throughout the state. Other popular athletic sports include basketball and baseball. Also, recreational sports such as hunting and fishing are also popular. Because of this, the state is often called "Sportsman's Paradise" locally. [14] Since 1958, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame has honored the elite figures in state sports history. The state has many sports teams for high school, college and professional athletes. [15]

In Louisiana, as in many other states, a love of athletics is instilled from a young age. Many locals learn to appreciate sports from an early age and grow up playing them. A family's love of sports is ingrained in its history as it is passed down through the generations. This is most likely the reason why so many youngsters decide to participate in high school athletics. [16]

Professional

[17]

College

High school

Stadiums and arenas

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cajun cuisine</span> Franco-American food developed by the Cajun people

Cajun cuisine is a style of cooking developed by the Cajun–Acadians who were deported from Acadia to Louisiana during the 18th century and who incorporated West African, French and Spanish cooking techniques into their original cuisine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cajuns</span> Ethnic group of Louisiana

The Cajuns, also known as Louisiana Acadians, are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana Creole cuisine</span> American regional cuisine

Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends West African, French, Spanish, and Native American influences, as well as influences from the general cuisine of the Southern United States.

The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gumbo</span> Louisianan stew

Gumbo is a stew that is popular in the U.S. state of Louisiana and is the official state cuisine. Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly flavored stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener, and the Creole "holy trinity" – celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the type of thickener used, whether okra or filé powder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jambalaya</span> Rice dish with meat and vegetables

Jambalaya is a savory rice dish of mixed origins that developed in the U.S. state of Louisiana apparently with African, Spanish, and French influences, consisting mainly of meat or seafood, and vegetables mixed with rice and spices. West Africans and Spanish people each had versions of jambalaya in their respective countries. Historian Ibraham Seck states Senegalese people were making jambalaya. The French introduced tomato to West Africans and they incorporated the crop into their one-pot rice dishes that created jambalaya and enhanced jollof rice. Spanish people made paella which is also a one-pot rice dish cooked with meats and vegetables. These styles of cuisines blended in Louisiana and resulted in cultural and regional variations of the dish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival</span> Annual music festival

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New Orleans each year. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc., as it is officially named, was established in 1970 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (NPO). The Foundation is the original organizer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell Oil Company, a corporate financial sponsor. The Foundation was established primarily to redistribute the funds generated by Jazz Fest into the local community. As an NPO, their mission further states that the Foundation "promotes, preserves, perpetuates and encourages the music, culture and heritage of communities in Louisiana through festivals, programs and other cultural, educational, civic and economic activities". The founders of the organization included pianist and promoter George Wein, producer Quint Davis and the late Allison Miner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red beans and rice</span> Dish characteristic of Louisiana Creole cuisine

Red beans and rice is an emblematic dish of Louisiana Creole cuisine traditionally made on Mondays with kidney beans, vegetables, spices and pork bones as left over from Sunday dinner, cooked together slowly in a pot and served over rice. Meats such as ham, sausage, and tasso ham are also frequently used in the dish. The dish is customary – ham was traditionally a Sunday meal and Monday was washday. A pot of beans could sit on the stove and simmer while the women were busy scrubbing clothes. The dish is now fairly common throughout the Southeast. Similar dishes are common in Latin American cuisine, including moros y cristianos, gallo pinto and feijoada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Étouffée</span> American seafood and rice dish

Étouffée or etouffee is a dish found in both Cajun and Creole cuisine typically served with shellfish over rice. The dish employs a technique known as smothering, a popular method of cooking in the Cajun and Creole areas of south Louisiana. Étouffée is most popular in New Orleans and in the Acadiana region as well as the coastal counties of Mississippi, Alabama, northern Florida, and eastern Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antoine's</span> New Orleans restaurant

Antoine's is a Louisiana Creole cuisine restaurant located at 713 rue St. Louis in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is one of the oldest family-run restaurants in the United States, having been established in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore. A New Orleans institution, it is notable for being the birthplace of several famous dishes, such as Oysters Rockefeller, pompano en papillote, Eggs Sardou and Pigeonneaux Paradis. Antoine's Cookbook, compiled by Roy F. Guste features hundreds of recipes from the Antoine's tradition. It is also known for its VIP patrons including several U.S. presidents and Pope John Paul II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana Creole people</span> Ethnic group of Louisiana, USA

Louisiana Creoles are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. They share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, and Creole languages and predominant practice of Catholicism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of New Orleans</span>

The culture of New Orleans is unique among, and distinct from, that of other cities in the United States, including other Southern cities. New Orleans has been called the "northernmost Caribbean city" and "perhaps the most hedonistic city in the United States". Over the years, New Orleans has had a dominant influence on American and global culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seafood boil</span> Type of social event involving the consumption of seafood

Seafood boil in the United States is the generic term for any number of types of social events in which shellfish, whether saltwater or freshwater, is the central element. Regional variations dictate the kinds of seafood, the accompaniments and side dishes, and the preparation techniques. In some cases, a boil may be sponsored by a community organization as a fund-raiser or a mixer. In this way, seafood boils are like a fish fry, barbecue, or church potluck supper. Boils are also held by individuals for their friends and family for a weekend get-together and on the holidays of Memorial Day and Independence Day. While boils and bakes are traditionally associated with coastal regions of the United States, there are exceptions.

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute is an academic college of Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. The namesake of the college, Chef John Folse, is known as "Louisiana's Culinary Ambassador to the World".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnaud's</span> Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Arnaud's is a restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, specializing in Louisiana Creole cuisine. Established in 1918, it is one of the older and more famous restaurants in the city. The restaurant also houses a museum of the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courir de Mardi Gras</span> Cajun Mardi Gras celebration

The Courir de Mardi Gras is a traditional Mardi Gras event held in many Cajun and Creole communities of French Louisiana on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Courir de Mardi Gras is Louisiana French for "Fat Tuesday Run". This rural Mardi Gras celebration is based on early begging rituals, similar to those still celebrated by mummers, wassailers, and celebrants of Halloween. As Mardi Gras is the celebration of the final day before Lent, celebrants drink and eat heavily, dressing in specialized costumes, ostensibly to protect their identities. In Acadiana, popular practices include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, drinking alcohol, begging, trail riding, feasting, and whipping. Mardi Gras is one of the few occasions when people are allowed to publicly wear masks in Louisiana. Dance for a Chicken: The Cajun Mardi Gras, a documentary by filmmaker Pat Mire, provides insight into the history and evolution of this cultural tradition. In popular culture, two HBO series also make reference to the tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorignac's Food Center</span> Supermarkets of the United States

Dorignac's Food Center is a historic food store on Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie, Louisiana, near New Orleans, known for offering regional specialties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of New Orleans</span> Culinary traditions of New Orleans, Louisiana, US

The cuisine of New Orleans encompasses common dishes and foods in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is perhaps the most distinctively recognized regional cuisine in the United States. Some of the dishes originated in New Orleans, while others are common and popular in the city and surrounding areas, such as the Mississippi River Delta and southern Louisiana. The cuisine of New Orleans is heavily influenced by Creole cuisine, Cajun cuisine, and soul food. Later on, due to immigration, Italian cuisine and Sicilian cuisine also has some influence on the cuisine of New Orleans. Seafood also plays a prominent part in the cuisine. Dishes invented in New Orleans include po' boy and muffuletta sandwiches, oysters Rockefeller and oysters Bienville, pompano en papillote, and bananas Foster, among others.

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