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54
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2016
N
o matter the depths of their
devotion, as the Mass that began
at midnight on Christmas Eve
dragged on, Louisiana’s 19th century
French Catholics would have squirmed on
the hard wooden pews in anticipation of
the words that would set them free: “Go in
peace to love and serve the Lord.”
The Creoles in New Orleans and the
Acadians in the swamps and prairies
would have burst through the church doors
and into the chill air in the wee hours on
Christmas morning. That this devout,
drama-loving bunch had been fasting since
the previous Midnight to ready themselves
to receive Holy Communion at Midnight
Mass would have put a bit of zippity do-da
in their steps as they rushed home in their
Sunday best to lavish holiday feasts upon
which they would sup.
The sharing of an opulent meal, the
Reveillon, following the holiday mass on
Christmas Eve and again on New Year’s
Eve (the feast day of the French Saint
Sylvestre) was a custom inherited by
Louisiana Catholics from their European
ancestors. Often described as “meals fit for
a trip to heaven,” only the finest foods the
family could muster would suffice. While
their European brethren broke their fasts on
escargots, foie gras, and turkey stuffed with
chestnuts, the south Louisiana celebrant
would have enjoyed a regionally adapted
menu. Both the country Cajuns and the
city Creoles might have started their meal
with oyster stew or turtle soup, but while
the city folks’ entrées were likely cold beef
daubé glace, or smothered medallions of
pork or veal, their country counterparts
would have enjoyed a variety of fragrant
roast game they hunted themselves. Both
groups would have enjoyed rich puddings
and custards, copious amounts of wine,
brandy, and cordials, and candied fruits and
fanciful desserts like blucher de Noël or
croquembouche.
Christmas Day gift giving was modest
among Louisiana’s Catholics. Children’s
stockings were hung on Christmas Eve and
they may have found a trinket and small
sweets. Adults did not exchange gifts on
Christmas Day.
“At that time, Christmas was a very
religious experience,” said the late Florence
Hardy, Louisiana State Archivist, in a 2004
interview with
The Times-Picayune
. “ On
Christmas Day, you visited
la creche
— the
manger scene. Gifts were exchanged on
New Year’s Day.”
In a December 2004 article for
The Daily
Advertiser
of Lafayette Jim Bradshaw
wrote “Santa didn’t begin to visit Cajun
children until the late 1800s. Before then,
le petit bonhomme Janvier
, sometimes called
“the Little January Stranger” in English,
delivered gifts at New Year’s. If the children
were good during the year, he left them
fruit and perhaps a bauble or two. But
if they had been bad, he turned trickster
and left them ashes.”
William Webb says his mom Lola
Fontenot Webb delightedly recalled piles
of oranges and apples on her family’s
Grand Prairie porch on New Year’s Day.
“Her people were sharecroppers, their
resources lean but New Year’s Day was
special.”
Prior to the turn of the 20th century—most
assuredly before the Louisiana purchase —
throughout Catholic Louisiana New Year’s
Day was spent visiting neighbors to sup and
Holiday
History
by
Jyl Benson
the
Holiday
issue