The rhythm of a blacksmith’s hammer and teenage voices create the soundtrack of a traditional Christmas. The voices resonate inside a small Acadian chapel, while the blacksmith works in a nearby tool shed.
"They had to make all their tools. Augers and chisels, hoes and axes. Mom’s kitchen utensils," blacksmith Charles Goulas said.
Goulas enjoys making things the old fashioned way, the way his Cajun ancestors would have made their own tools and hardware in the 1840’s.
"It’s just a simple coal forge, and then by blowing air to my heat and fuel, I get my steel hot enough to where it gets over 2,000 degrees," Goulas explained.
When the steel turns red hot, the blacksmith can beat it square and then add curves to create something useful for a Cajun kitchen.
"Mostly for over the fire cooking," he said as he measured it up against one he previously crafted.
For the past 15 years, Charles Goulas has been a regular feature at Lafayette’s Acadian Village, a realistic recreation of what life would have been like for Louisiana’s Cajuns.
The structures here are authentic. They were originally built in the 1800s. They’re made out of hand cut cypress timbers, held together with wooden pegs, with walls that are plastered with mud.
Seven of the 11 structures are historical homes, some as old as the 1820’s.
"And so the homes were found by doing some research. Talking to a lot of the families and going back to finding where these homes were and then they were all donated. Once they were found, and then the next process of course was moving them on site," said Joey Babineaux, who works at Acadian Village.
Empty farmland was turned into this oak-shaded bayou community in 1976. It’s a project that provides jobs and a source of program funding for special needs citizens of the Lafayette area. The village has also become a tourist attraction and a source of pride for Acadian descendants.
"And it’s just to remind us of where we were, where we come to today. It’s always good to have that anchor there. And a lot of the people that work in here are fluent French speakers also, to it’s keeping that alive, it’s keeping the culture," said Babineaux
"Jous pas Francais" Grace Romero has worked in the village store for 30 years. The experience allows her to continue speaking the language of her ancestors.
"Of course it wasn’t my first language because my parents were punished at school if they spoke French. But I picked up what they, between my grandparents and my parents, and when I got married I did the same thing with my in-laws and my parents and spared my kids, but then now they have French in school and we can interact to a certain degree there," Romero remembered.
Romero says the Cajun French she learned wasn’t written. It survived in tight knit Cajun communities and was passed down orally from one generation to the next.
And that’s part of the mission of the Acadian village, recreating and preserving that unique way of life. And during December, thousands of visitors are drawn by the half-million Christmas lights and decorations that take over this quaint Cajun showplace.
The Carencro High School choir is one of dozens of musical groups that perform throughout the Christmas season. Lighted paths take families through displays that are both traditional and whimsical. For children, it’s a fantasy of holiday lights.
And for the people who work here, the Acadian village is also a reminder of their past that’s being kept alive for the future.
To learn more about Lafayette's Acadian Village, click http://www.acadianvillage.org
