Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana) - World Location Map

Click Here to Order this Flag
(3 foot by 5 foot Polyester Flags)
 
 
Courtesy Back to Country Flags Index

Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana) State Map

 Flag of Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana)

Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana) Flag, Description
 
     The

flag of Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana) Flag

: In 1965, Thomas Arceneaux, a charter member of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana and a former dean of agriculture at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, designed the Acadian flag. He described the flag symbolism: (1) three silver fleur-des-lis for the French heritage and origin of the Acadians, (2) the old arms of the Castille, a gold tower on a red field for Spain, which governed Louisiana for 40 years and was in possession of the territory when the Acadians arrived, and (3) a goldstar on a white for Our Lady of the Assumption, patron saint of the Acadians. The star also symbolizes the active participation of the Acadians in the American Revolution, as soldiers under General Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish governor of Louisiana.
 
     Origin of the term: The word Acadiana reputedly has two origins. Its first recorded appearance dates to the mid-1950s, when a Crowley, Louisiana, newspaper, the Crowley Daily Signal, coined the term in reference to Acadia Parish, Louisiana. However, KATC TV-3 independently coined "Acadiana" in the early 1960s, gave it a new, broader meaning, and popularized it throughout south Louisiana.
 
     Founded in 1962, KATC was owned by the Acadian Television Corporation. In early 1963, the station received an invoice erronously addressed to the Acadiana Television Corp. Someone had typed an extra "a" at the end of the word "Acadian." The station started using it to market their identity.
 
     Not copyrighted or trademarked, the state of Louisiana officially adopted the term. Today, there are numerous businesses and non-profit organizations that utilize Acadiana in their names, e.g., Acadiana CARES, Acadiana Symphony Associationand Young Professionals of Acadiana
 

Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana), Country Description
 
     Despite the frequent association of Cajuns with swamplands, Acadiana actually consists mainly of low gentle hills in the north section and dry land prairies, with marshes and bayous in the south closer to the coast, increasing in frequency in and around the Atchafalaya and Mississippi basins. The area is also filled with fields of rice and sugarcane.
 
     Acadiana by Louisiana law refers to the area that stretches from just west of New Orleans to the Texas border along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and about 100 miles inland to Marksville. This includes the 22 parishes of Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jeff Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Vermilion, and West Baton Rouge.
 
     Of those 22, eight parishes make up the Cajun Heartland, which is the central portion of Cajun Country initially settled by the majority of relocated Acadians. These parishes include Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion. Three of the parishes, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, are considered the River Parishes, along with occasionally included Ascension Parish. Present-day St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes also made up an area once called the German Coast of Louisiana.
 
     The metropolitan areas in the region include Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, Lafayette (the hub city of the Cajun Heartland), and Lake Charles. Other large cities and towns within the area are Abbeville, Crowley, Donaldsonville, Eunice, New Iberia, Opelousas, Rayne, and St. Martinville.
 

Acadiana Cajun (Louisiana), Historical Information
 
     Acadiana describes the French Louisiana region that is home to a large population of the descendants of the original Acadians, dispossessed by the British from what is now Nova Scotia, today known as Cajuns.
 
     In 1755, with war imminent between France and England, British authorities demanded that the French Acadians renounce their Catholic faith and swear allegiance to the British Crown. This was unacceptable to the great majority of French Acadians, and they were forced to leave Acadia. Early emmigrated French Acadians moved to New England, the West Indies or even back to France. Many eventually migrated to Louisiana where they had discovered that they were welcome.
 
     By 1971 the Louisiana state legislature officially recognized the area for its unique Cajun and Acadian heritage (Louisiana House Concurrent Resolution No. 496), and made Acadiana the official name of the 22-parish region. The word Acadiana has become emblematic of the Cajun and other cultures that share the region.

Additional Flag Information
 
Flag
 
     The flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used for signalling or identification. The design of a flag displayed in another form is also referred to as a flag. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used).
 
     National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging or advertising, or for decorative purposes, though at this less formal end the distinction between a flag and a simple cloth banner is blurred. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
 
History
 
     Although flag-like symbols have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years, the origin of flags in the modern sense is a matter of dispute. Some believe flags originated in China, while others hold that the Roman Empire's vexillum was the first true flag. Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Scythia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
 
     During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
 
     From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
 
     Beginning in the 17th century, European knights were replaced by centralized armies, and flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became much more elaborate, and were seen as objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.

Country, US State, Military, Organization, Rebel, Royal and Sports Flags "Purchase your flag now by selecting a store category below"

• 100’s of Polyester Flag Titles $9.95 Each  • Sports Title Nylon Flags  • FAST SHIPPER: Orders Ship within 1 Day  • Will Ship Worldwide  • All Flags are 3 Foot by 5 Foot Thank you for visiting our website, you are the reason we are in business and ship 100’s of flags each week.   Phone: (800)557-5767              8am - 6pm CST Mon - Fri "Enter Our Store"   Or use our Store Search to the right . .   Search this Store for the Title you are looking for. Advanced Search    • Checkered Flags  • Country - Nation Flags  • Historical Flags  • Message Flags  • Military Flags  • Organization-Group Flags    • Other Flags  • Rebel Flags  • Religious Flags  • Royal - Empire Flags  • Solid Color Flags  • Sports Title Flags    • US State Flags  • 8x10 Novelty Signs  • 11x17 Novelty Signs  • 8x11 Disney Fuzzy Signs  • 8x11 Disney Dry Erase  • 8x11 Fuzzy Fun Signs   SSL Ordering System Transactions are Secure