New Orleans
I lived in Louisiana for three years before moving to Virginia last year. Most of my friends whom I have met here think Louisiana is a terrible place to live and very boring. However, they are interested in and eager to visit and enjoy New Orleans. Fortunately, I visited New Orleans three times before Hurricane Katrina destroyed it.
I lived in Louisiana for three years before moving to Virginia last year. Most of my friends whom I have met here think Louisiana is a terrible place to live and very boring. However, they are interested in and eager to visit and enjoy New Orleans. Fortunately, I visited New Orleans three times before Hurricane Katrina destroyed it.
In fact, New Orleans is one of most attractive places in America. There are historical and cultural homes, Jazz, the Cajun and the Creole race with their foods, Mardi Gras, French Quarter, Café de Monde, Spanish moss, fine arts, and so on to draw our eyes. We can tell all of them that they have come from other nations and have created the culture of New Orleans. There is very liberal in drinking, dancing, sexual appealing, and other events.
Above all, I am always interested where Cajuns, Mardi Gras, and Creoles come from.
Cajuns
Cajuns are Canadian French that originated from Acadia in Canada in the early 1700s by French colonists. Acadian refugees moved to southern Louisiana because the British gained possession of the area. They live with their own language, culture, and architecture. The melancholy music they produce is unique because they have settled down and have been isolated in the swaps and bayous. Some Cajun foods have spread and are popular in every area of America. Crawfish etouffee, crawfish pie, gumbo, jambalaya, boudin, many kinds of seafood, and spicy food are representative of Cajun food. I especially loved crawfish that is boiled with corn, potatoes, and Cajun seasoning. The crawfish is so spicy that my fingers are sore while peeling the shells. I saw a poster that illustrated how to eat crawfish on a wall in a restaurant.
Creoles
Another remarkable culture in New Orleans is the Creoles. Creoles are early settlers who are descendants of French and Spanish bloodline and are mixed with the Guinean descendants of African slaves in Louisiana. They even still speak French and Spanish. The historical district in New Orleans contains beautiful Spanish colonial architecture. All of souvenir shops were decorated with scary voodoo sculptures. Voodoo (voudun in Haiti) is related to Afro-Catholic rituals dating back to the black Creoles in New Orleans. Black Creoles created their own music that they called zydeco music. Zydeco is of mixed Cajun tunes, African-American blues, and Caribbean rhythms.
Mardi Gras
The Mardi Gras in New Orleans begun in 1857. The festival is a very exotic and liberal carnival with masks, costumes, and parades. The carnival was imported by Creoles, but it did not originated from them. Mardi Gras originated from Egypt. It was a kind of ritual ceremony for fertility and to diminish the Nile’s flood. The carnival was absorbed in some European countries and New Orleans.
Above all, I am always interested where Cajuns, Mardi Gras, and Creoles come from.
Cajuns
Cajuns are Canadian French that originated from Acadia in Canada in the early 1700s by French colonists. Acadian refugees moved to southern Louisiana because the British gained possession of the area. They live with their own language, culture, and architecture. The melancholy music they produce is unique because they have settled down and have been isolated in the swaps and bayous. Some Cajun foods have spread and are popular in every area of America. Crawfish etouffee, crawfish pie, gumbo, jambalaya, boudin, many kinds of seafood, and spicy food are representative of Cajun food. I especially loved crawfish that is boiled with corn, potatoes, and Cajun seasoning. The crawfish is so spicy that my fingers are sore while peeling the shells. I saw a poster that illustrated how to eat crawfish on a wall in a restaurant.
Creoles
Another remarkable culture in New Orleans is the Creoles. Creoles are early settlers who are descendants of French and Spanish bloodline and are mixed with the Guinean descendants of African slaves in Louisiana. They even still speak French and Spanish. The historical district in New Orleans contains beautiful Spanish colonial architecture. All of souvenir shops were decorated with scary voodoo sculptures. Voodoo (voudun in Haiti) is related to Afro-Catholic rituals dating back to the black Creoles in New Orleans. Black Creoles created their own music that they called zydeco music. Zydeco is of mixed Cajun tunes, African-American blues, and Caribbean rhythms.
Mardi Gras
The Mardi Gras in New Orleans begun in 1857. The festival is a very exotic and liberal carnival with masks, costumes, and parades. The carnival was imported by Creoles, but it did not originated from them. Mardi Gras originated from Egypt. It was a kind of ritual ceremony for fertility and to diminish the Nile’s flood. The carnival was absorbed in some European countries and New Orleans.
I visited in New Orleans during Mardi Gras season. There were many tourists from all over the world. I really enjoyed the parades where everyone yelled for more beads. I still have all the beads from that memorable day.
After watching parades, I looked around Bourbon Street in one of the historical districts in New Orleans to find a restaurant for dinner and some souvenirs. I witnessed a shocking scene. People were gathering, shouting, and throwing beads to a woman who showed her breasts to the public. It was shocking to me.
After watching parades, I looked around Bourbon Street in one of the historical districts in New Orleans to find a restaurant for dinner and some souvenirs. I witnessed a shocking scene. People were gathering, shouting, and throwing beads to a woman who showed her breasts to the public. It was shocking to me.
Korea also has some festivals for Korean citizens and tourists. However, our festivals are quite conservative traditional performances that people wear traditional costumes. They recreate all kinds of old style events with Korean classical instruments, such as Samulnori, drum dance, fan dance, tight rope walking, reacting of the civil service examination of Joseon Dynasty, and so on. Korean events in the public are conservative.
Mardi Gras can be a very aggressive carnival when compared to Korean festivals. This carnival made me feel uncomfortable and not familiar with this American party.
References:
Black Creoles of Louisiana and Religion and Expressive Culture.
Chung, Ah-young. "World Samulnori Competition in Gongju." The Korea Times. 7 Nov. 2007 <http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2007/11/135_13322.html>
8 comments:
Thanks for the history of Mardi Gras! I have several friends who go to Mardi Gras every year. For a mini Mardi Gras if you will but still a good time visit Bourbon Street for Halloween!
From Marjorie,
Hi Oh-duck
According to Macionis " Culture is the values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that together form a people's way of life".Like you've mentioned, people think New Orleans is a bad place, I think it is the opposite even though I have never been there. I am from a Caribbean country, I speak French and creole, so I have a good understanding about Mardi Gras and their costumes. Seafood is my favorite.
Thanks for giving us some knowledge about Mardi Gras! To be very honest, I have heard of Mardi Gras, but never really knew what it was or how it was celebrated. As I read your blog on this topic, I became more interested about it. I became a little more curious as to know the history about it and why or how it is celebrated. I went to this website: http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/mardigras/mardigrashistory/index.html. It will be wrong to provide some information that I found about Mardi Gras and not share where I found I found the information from because I don't even know anything about it. Anyways, as I searching through the website, I found out that Mardi Gras came to North America from Paris. It is originally celebrated as a major holiday in France on March 3, and the camp where it is celebrated, is now called Point du Mardi Gras. Besides that, this website had a lot of information about Mardi Gras which was very cool. This website could be very useful to you if you would like to research more on Mardi Gras and the history of it. Thanks for the knowledge you provided us about this festival!
I have traveled to several places in my life due to my father’s occupation of a United States Marine but one of the places I have never been to is New Orleans but it sounds very exciting.
When you think of big cities you often know it going to be big full of different cultures. I enjoyed reading the different kinds you described, I have heard of Cajuns but never knew they were Canadian French and originated from Acadia in Canada. Same goes for Creoles, I feel cultures go unnoticed when we go to big cities because of all the distractions.
I have always wanted to go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, that’s awesome. I bet it was a shock to you about some of the behavior of some people.
I liked how you shared your personal experiences when you went there, makes it more personal.
I have always wanted to visit New Orleans. I want to experience a city blended and rich in culture. I think the food there would be unbelievable and I would probably leave twenty pounds heavier. I never really knew the difference between Cajuns and Creoles; I thought that was very interesting. They both have ancestors dating back to France but yet are quite different in their traditions. Plus who would want to miss the famous party of Mardi Gras!
Your post here was quite enlightening...it felt like we had not just a snapshot of Louisiana before Hurricane Katrina, but also got to see your lived experiences along with local history. Very interesting.
My only suggestion: just watch a bit of word phrasing: look at the last sentence in your first paragraph. What do you mean by "liberal...in sexual appealing"?
Wow, that was a very informative post. I had no idea that Cajuns are Canadian French. I love cajun foods and I think that it is always a good idea to know a little background on your favorite things, so thank you. I also never knew many of those things about Mardi Gras either. Having seen things about Mardi Gras on television, I can tell you that I think I would be a little scared to be there too. It seems that there is some weird stuff going on there.
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