Traditional Creole and Cajun Holy Week By Michelle A. Nicholson
When people think of Easter traditions, they likely envision baskets of candy and decorated eggs. But predictably, in South Louisiana, entire meals are part of the tradition. Easter Sunday here is celebrated with crawfish boils, barbeques, and feasts centered around an Easter ham, but the meals leading up to Easter Sunday are just as significant to our food culture. In fact, our customary Holy Week cuisine actually may be more special—and is undeniably equally delicious.
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Holy Thursday – Gumbo Z’herbes Meat-free Fridays during Lent are a common practice among the region’s Catholics. Eating on Good Friday is even more complicated by church mandates to fast and to abstain from work—so all of the cooking for Good Friday has to take place on Holy Thursday. Thus enters gumbo z’herbes, or green gumbo, into the mix of New Orleans’s Easter traditions. Gumbo z’herbes is commonly considered the culinary offspring of the West African callaloo and the French potage aux herbes, though it also resembles the German gründonnerstagsuppe, or Green Thursday Soup, another Holy Week tradition. In keeping with its diverse Creole heritage, gumbo z’herbes has many manifestations, with one obvious common denominator: lots of winter greens. Some believe the odd number of greens prescribed for the soup has religious significance, being symbolically related to the Stations of the Cross, but gumbo z’herbes has become quite secular. The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book (1901) says
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GOOD FOOD FOR GOOD FRIDAY
