The 2018 Children’s Courer de Mardi Gras is pictured here, hosted by the Teche Center for the Arts in Breaux Bridge. A courir de Mardi Gras is a traditional celebration of the holiday handed down through generations of Cajuns. The festivities includes a costumed romp through the community featuring traditional Cajun music and dancing, chicken chasing, and begging for ingredients for the evening’s gumbo to accompany the chicken. This South Louisiana tradition is over 150 years old. *photos are copyright 2018, The Advocate. View Original article...
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The Bridge of 1799 The first bridge to span Bayou Teche in what is now Breaux Bridge, was a footbridge built by Firmin Breaux. It is very likely that the bridge was a suspension bridge made of rope and small planks, with stability being provided through small pilings located at each end of the bridge. The bridge was further stabilized by ropes tied to a pair of huge live oak trees on both sides of the bayou. The Bridge of 1817 This was the first vehicular bridge in Breaux Bridge and was built by Agricole Breaux, the son of Firmin Breaux. The Bridge of 1845 A simple modification of the Bridge of 1817 resulted in the draw bridge of 1845. With the use of masts and cables, oxen or mule teams were used in lifting the center portion of the bridge to allow passage of boats. Ship logs of New Orleans captains acknowledge this bridge. current bridgeThe Bridge of 1855 Also located in Parc des Ponts de Pont Breaux is the bridge that spanned Bayou Teche from 1855 to 1891. The bridge, like most of the bridges along Bayou Teche at that time, was a turntable bridge. In 1863, Confederate troops burned the bridge to prevent the passage of Union troops. Union troops found the bridge to be repairable, and their repairs to the bridge sustained it in Breaux Bridge until 1891, when it was moved to the neighboring community of Ruth. In recent years Ruth constructed a new bridge and the Bridge of 1855 was returned to its original location and reassembled to run along Bayou Teche, rather...
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 current 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 convincing to get the locals to eat them. Crawfish étouffée made its debut in the 1950s, and now is the quintessential 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 produce 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 insignificant crustacean. Sources: Kenneth Delcambre, Breaux Bridge City Historian; Jim Bradshaw, History of Acadiana; Jimmy Avery and Dwight Landreneau,...
In the 17th century, a group of French families colonized land in the area now known as Nouvelle Écosse (Nova Scotia), then referred to as L’Acadie. Les Acadiens, as they called themselves, were a simple people, who highly valued their God and their families. They wisely settled the best lands in the region, and developed a rich, though simple, prosperous society. But the prosperity was short-lived. Soon the British arrived. In a brutal act of ethnic cleansing, the British overwhelmed the Acadians, took away their land, burned their homes, and separated their families. Large numbers of Acadians were packed into cramped boats and deported to the sea. This traumatic period in Acadian history is what we call “le grand derangement.” For the first ten or so years, the Acadians were scattered among the American colonies, England, and France. Eventually a few groups found their way to Louisiana where they were welcomed by the then Spanish government. Word quickly spread that a “new Acadie” was being formed, and over the next few decades, many Acadian families found their way to Louisiana and were united again with family. And indeed, a new Acadie was born. While the Acadians remained the major population in South Louisiana for quite some time, they quickly found themselves surrounded by more and more cultural influences. Eventually, Spanish, French, German, and Native American Indian elements blended with the Acadian culture to form what is now known as Cajun (Cadien) culture. The French language remained the dominant language in South Louisiana until the early 20th century, when a state mandate forbade the speaking of French on the school...
