All things Cajun

[Celestia]

Boudin:


Crawfish Etouffee (Shrimp is also popular)


Jambalaya:


Gumbo:

[Latinus]

Boudin:


Crawfish Etouffee (Shrimp is also popular)


Jambalaya:


Gumbo:

They all have a good appearance and surely taste great, with Jambalaya being the one that most caught my attention.

[NSXD60]

Hard to make good boudin, too much water gives it a bilge water taste, unbalanced seasoning limits its range, and too much is too much, not to mention meat quality and duration of cooking. Half who attempt it, fail. Btw, anybody can make sausages.

[Tannhauser]

The Acadian Flag of Lousiana

From the Wiki:

The flag of the ethnic Acadian (Cajun) region (in Louisiana, United States) was designed in 1965 by Thomas J. Arceneaux. Arceneaux was the dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He derived the flag from the University seal. Arceneaux was an early leader of the Louisiana French Renaissance Movement, a movement intended to renew interest and pride in the French-Acadian heritage, language, and culture of Louisiana.

On July 5, 1974, the Louisiana State Legislature officially adopted Arceneaux's design as the official Acadiana flag through House Concurrent Resolution 143.

Description:

The three silver fleurs-de-lis on the blue field represent the French heritage of Acadiana. The fleurs-de-lis is a symbol of the kings of France.

The flag can be seen in various uses in the Acadiana region. Some local governments fly the flag of Acadiana with their respective local colors and the American flag. Many residents of Acadiana fly the flag on their homes or businesses. To many, it is seen as a unifying image of the historic and present socioeconomic ties that bind the region. Lafayette also uses it as its city flag.

Louisiana was still under Spanish rule when the Acadians were sent there. Since the Acadians thrived in Louisiana, a portion of the flag pays tribute to Spain. The gold castle on a red field is the coat of arms of Castile, one of the kingdoms that merged to become modern Spain.

The gold star on the white field symbolizes Our Lady of the Assumption, the patron saint of Acadiana (the star also symbolizes the active participation of the Cajuns in the American Revolution, as soldiers under General Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish governor of Louisiana).

[NSXD60]

drapeau is usually a diaper en Cadjein, flag having been borrowed from English long ago, as in "Capitaine, capitaine, vôyage ton flag", from La Chonson de Mardi Gras. Perhaps a Drapeau de Crapaud with a toad impression on the backside of a baby's diaper wouldn't be that inappropriate, and imagine the patriotic pride in mom as she does the laundry.

[Celestia]

Print screen isn't working but here is information on Cajun communities via AncestryDNA


Community History
Historically, “Creoles” referred to people of French descent born in Louisiana, and this group of French Louisianans came to dominate New Orleans and Southern Louisiana. Louisiana stayed connected to France even after becoming an American state, attracting migrants from France well into the 19th century. Creole culture evolved as people of French heritage interacted with the Louisiana environment and influences from African, Native American, and Spanish cultures. What resulted is a unique culture with food, music, and history unlike anything outside of Louisiana.


A Creole Colony
Lower Louisiana attracted people from all over the French-speaking world. Migrants from Northern France and Acadia (modern-day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) rushed to the mouth of the Mississippi and Mobile (Alabama) looking for wealth and land as freeholders, merchants, smugglers, soldiers, and frontier tradesmen. The plantation economy proved the biggest draw, however, and the enslaved African population quickly outnumbered white Europeans. The rains and long summers were excellent for growing rice, sugar, tobacco, corn, and fruit trees, but the climate also brought violent flooding and punishing heat. Louisiana acquired something of a reputation as a haven for malcontents, shiftless adventurers, illicit smugglers, and quarrelsome folk in general.

1775–1800
Drawing from All Corners
Louisiana’s French Creoles were French-speakers born in Louisiana who mixed cultures from their French and Canadian homelands with plantation, African, indigenous, and Spanish traditions along the waterways of southern Louisiana. They were typically Roman Catholic and often shared music and dialects, but they were also diverse. There were French-speaking descendants from German settlers at Des Allemands, New Orleans merchants and craftsmen, rich planters, small farmers, and refugees from the French Revolution looking for a new life in the New World. South Louisiana and especially New Orleans was a place of great opportunity. Even poor farmers and formerly enslaved Africans had a chance to get rich farming or trading.

1800–1825
The New Americans
French Creoles became citizens of the English-speaking United States after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Creoles quarreled bitterly with incoming Americans over who was in charge and their refusal to adopt American norms, including speaking English. Rural Creoles lived on long, thin tracts called ribbon farms that extended outwards from a bayou or river. They raised cash crops, hunted deer and alligator, fished in the bayous and the Gulf of Mexico, and fiercely resisted outside interference of any kind. Those who couldn’t afford their own land worked as laborers alongside enslaved Africans on Creole plantations to make ends meet.

[de Burgh II]

Interesting... especially in Anglo-America; the Acadian exiles have a continuum in their regional cuisines and so forth even until today.

[de Burgh II]

Community History
Over a century and a half of settlement, the Acadians established a prosperous and dynamic society in what became Canada’s Maritime Provinces, but it was shattered when England and France went to war. The Acadians were forcibly removed from their homeland by the British and scattered along the Atlantic Seaboard. Some returned to find their old farmland taken over by Anglo settlers, while others established Acadian enclaves in New England. In both places, they worked to preserve their language and culture even in the face of persecution.

1700–1750
A New Culture in a New Land

While the Acadians originally hailed from all over France, most came from Île-de-France, Normandy, Brittany, Poitou, and Aquitaine. They brought with them a knack for building dikes that opened coastal land for cultivation, which made them well suited to their new home, where tidal marshes provided rich farmland, and fishing villages dotted the Atlantic coast. They befriended, and often married, the local Mi’kmaq people, traded with France and New England, and prospered. When the British captured Port Royal in 1710 and obtained what is now mainland Nova Scotia in 1713, the Acadians adopted a strategy of neutrality, and the population continued to grow.

1750–1775
The Great Upheaval

War broke out between Britain and France in 1754. Convinced the Acadians were providing their enemies food and information, and worried they represented a potential “fifth column,” British officials ordered their expulsion when the Acadians wouldn’t swear an oath of allegiance. During “Le Grand Dérangement,” over 11,000 Acadians were forcibly removed from their homeland. Many were deported to Britain’s colonies along the Atlantic coast, and thousands died. About 2,000 were exiled to Massachusetts, where some were indentured and state laws kept them from living in large groups or leaving their assigned towns. In 1764, the British allowed the Acadians to return home.
People in Your Tree


1775–1800
Coming Home

Acadians who returned home found most of their farms taken by British settlers. They resettled on the western coasts of mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, the northern and eastern coasts of New Brunswick, and western Prince Edward Island (PEI). Except for PEI, the soil wasn’t suited for extensive agriculture, and the Acadians made much of their living as fisherfolk. The Anglo majority was decidedly anti-French and anti-Catholic, and legislation barred Acadians from voting or holding office in Canada. The Acadians made the best of their lot, and by 1800, about 23,000 Acadians were scattered throughout the Atlantic world.
People in Your Tree


1800–1850
Existence on the Edge

Living largely in isolated, tight-knit communities away from colonial authority, the Acadians’ priority was eking a living from the land and sea. But they were also concerned with linguistic and cultural survival. Acadian French became a distinct dialect, retaining elements of 18th-century French and, later, incorporating elements from indigenous languages and English. The Roman Catholic Church emerged as the chief guardian of Acadian culture because it controlled education and many Acadian traditions were tied to the Church. Even after laws prohibiting Acadians from voting or holding office were repealed, old prejudices meant the Anglo-Protestant majority was slow to elect Acadians or give them government jobs.
People in Your Tree


1850–1900
The Acadian Renaissance

Despite facing bigotry, the Acadian population grew and developed more of a collective national identity, inspired in part by the popularity of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem about an Acadian girl, “Evangeline.” Maritime Acadians organized societies to promote their interests and preserve their language and culture, established a national holiday (the Feast of the Assumption), a national flag, and academies, such as Collège Saint-Joseph and Sainte-Anne College. They also succeeded in getting New Brunswick to allow publicly funded French-language schools under the direction of Catholic clergy, a move fiercely resisted by Anglo-Protestants. Other Acadians migrated to industrial New England seeking jobs.
People in Your Tree


1900–1950
Urbanization & National Struggle

Starting in the late 19th century, the Maritimes underwent an extensive period of industrialization and urbanization. Acadians were not immune to this trend, and many moved to urban centers, particularly Moncton in southeastern New Brunswick, or to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the largest urban center in the Maritime Provinces. Others moved to urban areas in New England that already had Francophone populations of both Acadian and Quebecois extraction. They suffered through two World Wars and the Great Depression with their Anglo neighbors, while struggling to attain greater political representation and preserve their language and identity as a Francophone minority within a larger Anglophone community.

[Celestia]

nice, thanks for sharing! I will get on my phone here in a bit and screenshot the rest of the Cajun communities I scored.

[de Burgh II]

nice, thanks for sharing! I will get on my phone here in a bit and screenshot the rest of the Cajun communities I scored.

Its funny... you have Cajun (Acadian) ancestry from Louisiana and I have Acadian ancestry from the original homeland... I guess that makes us distant cousins!