The day after Thanksgiving isn’t just a convenient day to take off work.
In Louisiana, it’s actually a legal holiday.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is Acadian Day in the state. That means state offices will be closed, as well as some local offices.
The day is supposed to commemorate “the arrival in Louisiana of the Acadian people from the French colony Acadia following the ceding of that colony to England in 1713,” according to a 2017 proclamation signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards.
In addition, Acadian Day is designed to recognize that Acadians helped to establish much of Louisiana’s early political and economic development “through cultivation of land, utilization of Louisiana’s natural resources and the interest of the Acadian people in political self-determination and American democracy.”
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Previous Louisiana governors have signed similar proclamations for the past several years.
Normal business hours across Louisiana will resume on Monday, Nov. 26.
