Bon Temps 1

Bon Temps

Where should

you festival?

TravelLouisiana

Let the Good Times RollApril/MayUK £ 13 US $18.95

Bon Temps 2 Bon Temps 3

Don’t miss out on the culture and

heritage experience that Lafayette has to

offer.

Grab your dancing shoes and head on

down to little Breaux Bridge for a toe

tappin’ good time!

New Orleans Mardi Gras is

something everyone should

experience. Mark your calendar!

ContentsMardi Gras in NOLA by Taylor Webre 4

Crawfish Capital of the World by Elise deBruler 6

Bienvenue a Lafayette by Michael Biediger 8

Where to Stay? by Ridge Blanchard 12

Who Dat? by Danny McNeil 14

Where My Cajuns At? by Robert Goodlife 16

Ride Your Gator to School by Lane Green 18

If Crawfish Could Talk by Lucas Guidry 20

Photo by Beau Hebert

Photo by Jane Goodman

Photo by Dean Michael

Bon Temps 4 Bon Temps 5

Mard

i Gra

s NOLAINby Taylor Webre

The metro area’s 30,000-plus hotel

rooms are tradition-ally 95% filled during Mardi Gras weekend.

“Mardi Gras” means Fat Tuesday in French.

More than 500,000 king cakes are sold

each year in New Or-leans between January

6 and Fat Tuesday.

Where Did Mardi Gras Come From?

The revels began (where so many revels did) in ancient Rome. Long before the Christian era, young men in disguise roamed the streets making merry during the winter Saturnalia. In the third century A.D., the emperor Aurelius fixed December 25- the winter solstice under the Julian calendar- as the birthday of the Invincible Sun, which the Romans worshipped. The dates of the Saturnalia and the Sun festival roughly collided, making for a weeklong, merry midwinter holiday season. A couple of centuries later, the early Christian Church cleverly consolidated and converted these pagan feasts (as it had so many others) to a Christian holiday, declaring December 25 the birthday of the Son of God and Man. They called it “Christ Mass,” or Christmas. The Epiphany, the visit of the three kings to the Christ Child, was then celebrated on January 6, the twelfth day after Christmas. In medieval Europe, the The Twelve Days of Christmas became a series of celebrations presided over

gras or “fat Tuesday,” the day before Lent. Ironically, the solemn, austere period of Lent created Carnival, which means literally, “farewell to meat.” All carnival revelries began with the frenzied over-indulgence of people about to bid a temporary, but very fond, adieu to the pleasures of the flesh. Another irony, the date for Easter (which determines Lent and therefore Mardi Gras) was determined by the Spring Equinox, a major pa-gan festival of ancient Rome, which the early Church char-acteristically morphed into a Christian feast day. Mardi Gras falls between February 3 and March 9, always 46 days before Eas-ter- the total of the 40 days of Lent plus the six Sundays in that period (no abstinence on Sunday). The date for Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox. Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to have fun, make friends, and see how people down South party. We promise that you will not be dissapointed! Laissez les bons temps rouler!

by an impromptu king of the festivities, the Lord of Misrule. During the revels, small tokens were distributed, suggesting the gifts brought by the three kings. The goodies dispensed by the Lord of Mis-rule and his court prefigure current carnival throws. Bals masqués, or masked balls, became the pinnacle of Twelfth Night revelry in Renaissance Italy and spread to France and England. Early New Orleans Creoles called them les bals des rois, for the kings who presided over the masked merrymaking. A mock king for the night was chosen by chance: whoever found a coin or a bean in a piece of special “king cake” (named for the three kings and the king of Twelfth Night), was crowned monarch of Twelfth Night. His queen he either chose himself or was given through the luck of the draw: the girl who found a pea in her cake was crowned consort. The cake, bean and pea are ancient symbols of fertility. Later, the masques and entertainment continued through Shrove Tuesday, which the French called mardi

Bon Temps 6 Bon Temps 7

C r a w f i s hCapital of the World

Breaux Bridge, LouisianaBreaux Bridge has a rich and inter-esting heritage, filled with intrigue, heroism and legend. We’re a closely knit community of neighbors who’ve weathered storms, war and floods, among other things. But what really sets us apart from any other area of the country is our unique culture. Nowhere else can you find the perfect balance of great food, history, nature, architecture, and joie de vivre (joy of life) that we have here in Breaux Bridge. So how did the lowly crawfish gain such prominence in our culture? Well, actually, Native Americans in the area were the first credited with harvesting and consuming crawfish even before the Cajuns arrived on the scene. They used to bait reeds with venison (deer meat), stick them in the water and periodically pick up the reeds with crawfish attached to the bait. By using this method, the Native Americans would catch bushels of crawfish for their consumption. By the 1930s nets were substituted, and by the 1950s the now ubiquitous crawfish trap was widely used. The trap is still the cur-rent method of harvesting mudbugs.Mrs. Charles Hebert is credited with being the first to put crawfish on a menu in the early 1920s. By the 1930s,

crawfish were seen as a good source of protein, especially for poor Cajuns, though it actually took some con-vincing to get the locals to eat them. Crawfish étouffée made its debut in the 1950s, and now is the quintessen-tial Cajun dish. Étouffée is prepared in as many ways as there are Cajun cooks living in our area-each one an original.

Today, more than 1,600 farmers pro-duce crawfish, utilizing over 111,000 acres of man-made ponds. Louisiana is the largest producer of crawfish in the world. St. Martin Parish, Breaux Bridge’s home, produces the most crawfish in the state and has the most crawfish acreage in the eight-parish area known as Acadiana. Crawfish is now a multimillion dollar industry. All of this from a relatively insignifi-cant crustacean.

The world famous Crawfish Festival began in 1960 as a spin-off of the Breaux Bridge Centennial Cel-ebration. The Louisiana Legislature had just named Breaux Bridge the crawfish capital of the world in 1959. The festival is now known around the country and even the world. Every May, thousands of hungry people flock to Breaux Bridge to be part of the festivities. Crawfish Festival has been written up in the New York Times and countless publications worldwide. The people of Breaux Bridge strive to keep the festival true to its roots: an authentic depiction of our unique

Did You Know?

Continued on pg. 11

by Elise deBruler

Photos by Drew Morris

Bon Temps 8 Bon Temps 9

Beinvenue a Lafayette,Louisiana

Festival’s Top Performers

The Funky Meters •Bombino •Tinari-wen Official Festival Kick-Off Concert starring the legendary Dick Dale Sa-

lute to Congres Mondial Acadien 2014 Presented By Coca Cola Zachary Rich-ard with Special guest Sonny Landreth •Radio Radio Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars •Baloji & L’orchestre De La Katuba •The Duhks La Santa Cecilia

•Black Joe Lewis •Imam Baildi •Orkestar ZirkoniumOrkestar Zirko-nium •Vagabond Swing Kobo Town

•Keith Frank Soileau Zydeco •Hassan Hakmoun •BélO Dominique Dupuis •Les Hay Babies •Bernard Adamus

•BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet Sur-oît •Steve Riley the Mamou Playboys

by Michael Biediger

History of Culture

Lafayette, the heart of Acadiana and the unofficial capital of Cajun Country, with its gleaming present belies an exciting and captivating past. Lafay-ette is a metropolis which displays an extraordinary mixture of tradition and progressiveness. Having a rich French heritage blended with Spanish, Ameri-can, Indian and African influences, the city represents a colorful combination of lifestyles.

Lafayette lies 15 miles west of the Atchafalaya Basin and 35 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico and exhibits the subtropical climate typical of South Louisiana. The city is situated in a geo-graphical area of forests and prairies interlaced with bayous, swamps and marshes.

The first known inhabitants, the Attakapas Indians, were known to have populated the Lafayette area in the 1700s. The tribe was very powerful and feared by other Indians. The Attakapas dominated until three opposing tribes,

the Opelousas, Alabamons and Choc-taws, united in battle and conquered their opponent. Legend reports that the Attakapas Indians supposedly ate their prisoners of war.

The exact date when the first Europe-an settlers reached the Lafayette area is not known. Early historians report that a few trappers, traders and ranchers were present in the region prior to the Spanish occupation of 1766. A census conducted in 1769 by Spanish Governor O’Reilly in-dicated a population of 409 for the area.

The historical event of the 18th century which had the greatest cultural impact on Lafayette was the migration of the Acadians from French Canada. Approxi-mately 18,000 French-speaking Catholic inhabitants settled Acadie (now Nova Scotia) in 1605 and lived there under French rule until 1713 when the region went into English hands.

“Having a rich French heritage blended with Spanish, American, Indian and African influences, the city represents a

colorful combination of lifestyles.”

Festival Internationale

April 23-27, 2014

Downtown Lafayette

Festival International de Louisiane is the largest Francophone (French speaking) festival in the United States. This FREE Festival began in 1986, and has been held every year since, in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana. Music, dancing, cuisine, theater, cooking demonstrations, storytelling, visu-al arts, crafts, and street animation create a major cultural festival experience that is truly unique and memorable.

Food vendors at Festival International de Louisiane transport you to the streets of far away lands. Tabasco and cayenne pep-pers. Mouth-watering seafood. Spicy Ca-ribbean flavors. Jambalaya. Delicate pastas. French pastries. The subtle and the mild. The bold and provocative. Aromas mix in the warm Louisiana air, bringing together diverse cultures, like those of France and Africa in dishes of the French West Indies and Creole gumbo. And an adventurous audience discovers far away lands in the flavors of the world.

Visual and performing arts abound in galleries and theaters throughout Lafayette. Expressions of freedom, emotion, opinions and ideas emanate from movements on stage and brush strokes on canvas. In every medium there are personal interpretations of human experiences from the far cor-ners of the earth. Theater. Dance. Cinema. Visual arts. Beauty is everywhere - in the potter’s clay, in the words of the playwright, in the weave of the cloth, in the heart of the artist. Festival International holds a special place in its heart of the children of the world. La Place des Enfants. Storytellers. Games. Music. Art. Hands-on programs and active participation teach children about the diversity of cultures around the world. It is learning and entertainment, but most of all, it’s fun!

Bon Temps 10 Bon Temps 11

Cajun heritage. The festival remains a celebration of life here in south Louisiana, complete with real Cajun music, games, rides, arts and crafts, cooking demonstrations, and, of course, thousands of pounds of crawfish. The adventurous festival goer can sample just about every conceivable crawfish creation: boiled crawfish, fried crawfish, crawfish etouffee, crawfish dogs, crawfish jambalaya, crawfish bou-din, crawfish pies, crawfish bisque, crawfish gumbo or whatever new dishes we’ve come up with in the last year. Kind of sounds like Forrest Gump’s partner Bubba describing the uses for shrimp. If you think you’re man (or woman) enough, en-ter the crawfish eating contest. The record is held by Nick Stipelcovich of Metairie, LA, who inhaled almost 56 pounds in one sitting. (Can you say “indigestion”?)

The Crawfish Festival has also be-come one of the largest gatherings of world famous Cajun musicians. All weekend long you can hear the sound of authentic Cajun, Zydeco and Swamp Pop music rising from the festival. Whether your musical taste is Cajun or Creole, you can witness over 35 bands perform over the three day event if you think you have the stamina. It’s a perfect opportunity to see our musical tradition passed from generation to generation. Watch the Cajun dance contests, and if you’re brave, join in. There’s no better way to learn. There are even Cajun music workshops held in the heritage tent. If Cajun or Creole music excites you, there’s no better place to experience it than at the Crawfish Festival.

For more information on the Craw-fish Festival, call the BBCFA Office at 337-332-6655, or check out the

official Crawfish Festival Web Site at www.bbcrawfest.com.

“It’s a perfect opportunity to see our musical tradition passed from generation to

generation.”

Continued from pg. 5

You Can’t Forget About the

Tablespoon Festival!

One of the reasons for having such a bountiful menu in Louisiana is the boun-ty itself. Seafood, wild game and rice are some of the staples that make us a land (okay, “State”) of plenty. We can grow or harvest from nature most anything we need to tickle our tongues. Our diverse backgrounds bring the bounty together in ways that astound the pallet. Loui-siana cooking brings a whole different meaning to the word “flavor”!

Seafood, for one, is as fresh as it can be had! Shrimp, crabs, crawfish, oysters, frog legs, alligator, speckled trout, red-fish, black drum, red snapper, grouper, flounder, catfish, bass, perch, sac-a-lait....and on, and on...! All within close reach.

Wild Game is out the back door (or close by). Deer, rabbit, wild hog, squirrel, raccoon, ducks, quail, doves, ... and so on...(I’m gettin’ hungry!)

Rice grown here goes with all of the above, and in addition, we grow peas, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, beets, turnips, mustard, collards, cab-bage, potatoes, okra, butter beans, corn, etc.

Seasonings that take their spot in the garden include bell pepper, hot peppers,

green onions, parsley and basil to name a few, and, we produce our own salt and sugar!

Oh, let’s not forget the cattle, hogs and chickens.... and we’re eyeing up nutria (marsh rats) real close.

We do import a few things but if the borders get closed we’re just fine. Yea, we got our own refineries for oil products and we produce our own natural gas too (to fire up the stoves!).

So what are we missing? All we need now is Pots, Pans and People, and we make that happen “just naturally”. I guess that’s why we have so many festivals here huh? I’m surprised we don’t have a “Tablespoon Festival”!

If your taste buds are dancing by read-ing this... here are some restaurants you may want to consider visiting in these parts of Louisiana.

Breaux Bridge- Pont Breaux’s, Cafe Des Amis, Crawfish Town, & Crazy About Crawfish Lafayette- Prejean’s, Riverside Inn, Louisiana Crawfish Time, & Blue Dog New Orleans- ACME Oysters, Boo-Ray’s, & Michael’s Seafood

Bon Temps 12

Ap

ril

/Ma

yU

K £

13

US

$1

8.9

5