Loreauville, Louisiana - Culture

Culture

• Sugarcane Harvest time (from September to December annually) is an opportunity to witness sugarcane farming. Many farmers deliver their harvest to local sugar cooperatives with tractor drawn cane carts. The Louisiana Sugarcane festival occurs annually in September in the nearby town of New Iberia.
• Many of the villages current and former inhabitants are of Cajun heritage and French is spoken by many families as a second language.
• Boat building, in many shapes and forms, is an important cultural activity that has impacted the Village of Loreauville. From large shipyards such as Breaux's Bay Craft, Neuville Boat Works, and Breaux Brothers that build aluminum ocean going work vessels to the traditional wood Cajun pirogue hand crafted by local residents, boat building and the use of the local waterways such as Bayou Teche and Lake Dauterive have been an important activity for residents since the establishment of the village.
• Sugarcane farming remains an important activity with many sugarcane farms located in the immediate area surrounding the village.
• Loreauville has several annual parades each year with attendance by many of the local inhabitants as participants or attendees. A few of the annual parades are: Mardi Gras, Homecoming Parade, and Christmas Parade.
• For many years, one of the first museums in Southern Louisiana dedicated to the history of the Acadians and the Cajun culture was on Main Street near the present day Loreauville High School. The museum was privately owned and funded by a local resident well versed in the history and culture of the Acadians. The Museum site was located behind a private home West of School Drive and North of the existing Loreauville High School Gymnasium. The Museum area was largely an outdoors facility in a large horseshoe shape with the apex of the horseshoe near Bayou Teche. The Museum was in operation from approximately 1970 until the early 1980s. Several period buildings were donated to the museum from local residents and moved to the site, including the original one room schoolhouse that was used in Loreauville between 1900 and 1925. Other displays in the museum celebrated local Cajun culture with displays of period clothing, housewares, and early historic relics from the 19th century. A small collection of the artifacts from the Loreauville museum were donated to the Acadian Village upon the closure of the Loreauville Museum.