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| Christmas Carnivals » Christmas Around The World » Christmas In Louisiana |
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Christmas In Louisiana |
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Like all other states in America, Christmas in Louisiana is all about celebrating the socio-cultural-religious festival. The northern and the southern states have their own distinctive styles of celebrating Christmas. The southern state of Louisiana has its own way of celebrating Christmas,
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which is totally different in certain respects from the way the other states celebrate Christmas. Christmas in Louisiana or rather, the holiday season in Louisiana starts from the first Saturday of December.
Christmas in Louisiana includes some customs reminiscent of the state's French legacy. Among the Cajuns (Louisianans of French-Canadian descent), Santa Claus is known as "Papa Noel" (Father Christmas), and he is believed to ride on a pirogue (a type of canoe popular in Louisiana) pulled by alligators (which are abundant in the state's swamps), rather than on the traditional reindeer-drawn sleigh. To help Papa Noel find his way to the children's homes, small communities west on New Orleans light huge bonfires along the banks of the Mississippi River on Christmas Eve night. Louisianans also prepare dishes (casseroles and dressings, for example) with ingredients such as sausage, oysters, shrimp, crawfish, okra, and mirlitons and in true Louisiana fashion, some of these dishes are spicy. Whole turkeys deep-fried in large vats of peanut oil are popular along with the roasted variety.
The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 (also known as Twelfth Night since it falls 12 days after Christmas) marks the beginning of the carnival season which ends on Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"), the day before Ash Wednesday. To know more on Christmas in Louisiana, stay connected to
Christmas Carnivals.
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