An Acadiana List of Christmas Traditions

Unfortunately for you Christmas buffs, Cajuns are really not big Christmas celebrators in the American sense. To Cajuns, Christmas was a religious holiday to be spent at Mass followed by a gathering of the family for a meal.

These were not wealthy people... they WORKED. And to them Christmas was not a secular day to spend money they couldn't afford on fancy gifts.

It was a time for family celebrations. They got together after Midnight Mass for a meal that often lasted until dawn.Often there were toasts with the liqueur anisette. A toast of anisette was saved for the end of the meal. The head of the family would toast to everyone's health. and the toast would be returned by everyone present.This toast would include those family members who could not be present for the occasion.

New Years Day , however , was a different story. This was the day that Cajuns would celebrate. Even thought it was also a religious holiday, it had its own traditons. Unfortunately, this included the unsavory and dangerous tradition of firing guns into the air at midnight on New Years Eve, which is still practiced in many areas today.

But to Cajun children, New Years Eve meant that "Christine" would soon be here. Also refered to as "Ti-BonHomme" , this tradition insured that children would find their stockings filled with fruits and nuts on the morning of the New Year Day. For the boys , there was also the fun of finding their stockings filled with fireworks. The girls would sometimes find small dolls and such.These were the gifts that Santa for one reason or another could not deliver on Christmas Eve , and "Christine" ( Mrs. Claus) could not bear to see not delivered for fear of disappointing the children.

Today, the Cajun culture has more or less embraced the American Christmas... with some definite differences. For instance, you are more likely to find a whole deep fried turkey on the dinner table Christmas Day rather than a baked one.Regardless, Cajuns still tend to play down their Christmas celebrations as in the old days. It still remains a day to go to Mass, have a huge family meal, and spend the day visiting with family and friends. It is rather interesting to note that Cajuns , when speaking in French, don't even have a word for Christmas. The older people tend to use the English word because there was no strong word in the culture for the tradition.

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