“Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day,” some people say, and what better a day to commemorate the ancient history of Ireland than today? Ireland, Eire, Hibernia — Ireland is known by many names. Sometimes Ireland is called "the Emerald Island" for the island's great green expanses. Some people call Ireland "the Island of Saints…
The First Thanksgiving in Louisiana
Thanksgiving might be the quintessential American holiday. Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, but prior to that, “days of thanksgiving” were periodically declared by governors or other political authorities. In the popular imagination, the First Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth Colony by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags in 1621. However, while indeed…
An 18th Century Map of the Northshore
A late 18th century map gives us a rare early glimpse of what later became St. Tammany Parish.
The Acolapissa
"On the 20th M. de Bienville embarked in a felucca with a Bayagoula chief and twelve Canadians, to visit the Colapissa nation, who lived on the right bank of lake Pontchartrain, about eight leagues inland. On the 22d he arrived at their landing ; and on the 23d he repaired to the Colapissa…
Japanese Poetry
Japan has a long and rich tradition of poetry.
Walker Percy’s Nonfiction
Walker Percy might be best known for his fiction, especially The Moviegoer, winner of the 1962 National Book Award. However, Walker Percy had his hand at nonfiction too, and was prolific in writing articles about southern society, psychology, and (most especially) semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs. In the case of language, semiotics refers…
The Tchefuncte Culture
In 1938, the State of Louisiana began work on a new state park just outside of Mandeville on land that had once been the Fontainebleau Plantation. The state was planning on naming it the Tchefuncte State Park, although it was several miles from the Tchefuncte River, between the Castine and Cane bayous. An archeological team…
Who was Saint Tammany?
On the 22nd of December 1811, Governor William Claiborne declared by proclamation the formation of four new Louisiana parishes in the county of Feliciana in the former territory of the short-lived West Florida Republic that had been recently annexed to the United States. Among the new divisions established was Saint Tammany Parish. As to why Claiborne…
Calendar Origins
It is near the end of January, the first month of a new year. By now we should all have our new calendars hanging up, which will soon be marked up and down and scribbled with all our plans. The calendar we use is something ubiquitous in our day-to-day activities. By this we plot out…
An Old New Orleans Christmas
Christmas in Old New Orleans was an uproarious celebration.
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