National Gumbo Day is celebrated on October 12. It’s a time to appreciate this heavily seasoned, savory state dish of Louisiana. Although, gumbo is a perfect bit of indulgence any day, anywhere! Gumbo typically consists of strongly-flavored stock with meat or shellfish, a thickener, and seasoned vegetables. The seasoned vegetables may include celery, bell peppers, and onions. In the Cajun cuisine, the trio is known as the “holy trinity. Most people serve gumbo over rice. Curl up on the couch and savor the flavors on National Gumbo Day, or enjoy with family and friends.
History of National Gumbo Day
As is quite common with the lesser-known holidays, even diligent research doesn’t reveal the first instance or true origins of National Gumbo Day. We do know that since 1989, the city of New Iberia, Louisiana has held a widely publicized yearly Championship Gumbo CookOff every October, a festival that injects two million dollars annually into the local economy, though the contest was cancelled in 2020 due to pandemic concerns.
Let’s start with the etymology of the word “gumbo.” A certain amount of ambiguity survives to this day, since one of the main ingredients, okra, is translated in the Niger-Congo languages spoken by slaves of the time as “quingombo,” while another main ingredient, filé, in the tongues of the native American Choctaw peoples of the region, is pronounced “kombo.” So, like the American hamburger, no one can claim credit for gumbo’s origin with absolute certainty.
So what makes gumbo such a big deal? Its historical significance to Louisiana goes back to the beginning of the 19th century when English settlers arrived in the area and took note of the rich, hearty, stew-like — and spicy! — dish. Gumbo has never lost its momentum as a staple of Louisiana cuisine. It’s the “official food” of Louisiana, and we would be hard-pressed to find a restaurant in the region that didn’t have gumbo on the menu.
Also, it’s not just a dish for commoners. In 1972, to commemorate the passing of Louisiana Senator Allen Ellender, the Senate’s cafeteria added Creole Gumbo to its menu as a permanent fixture. At its essence, there are two versions of gumbo, one originating with the Cajun people (from “Acadian,” a Canadian designation), and the other with the Creoles who had settled the region from France and Spain along with an enslaved African contingent.
Gumbos from both camps usually start with a roux — a French-style mixture of flour and fat — and may contain the vegetable okra, beef, fowl or sausage, the “holy trinity” of vegetables, pungent spices like “filé”, and whatever the chef throws in to make the batch big enough for a crowd.