OPELOUSAS — The St.Landry Parish cemetery tours are back and will start this weekend at the St.Landry Parish Catholic church cemetery.
"I am General Garrigues de Flaujeac, but you can just refer to me as the General," said James Douget, one of the cemetery tour guides in character this Saturday.
From head to toe, tour guides will be dressed up in character, telling historical stories of the people who once lived and made historical contributions.
These local historians give the voiceless a voice, but first, there is something you need to know. The event is not related to Halloween.
"We try not to be too scary, so to speak; we try to emphasize historical reenactments," said Douget.
Yep, you heard historian James Douget, right. Every mid-October, historians and actors come together and portray historical characters dating back to the late 1800s, detailing unique cultures, languages, and religions.
This year, you will get to hear from past figures General Flaujeac and Irene Bloch, who was married to the first African-American postmaster, Henry Bloch, in Opelousas.
The cemetery tours have educated and entertained the community for the last 21 years.
It gives us a chance to get out of our tombs, so to speak, and have fun with the public," said Douget.
Tourists can learn about soldiers who fought back in the Revolutionary and Vietnam Wars during these tours. They can also get a lesson or two in French.
"White, black, we even have people from Indian culture and so forth, so it's unique, and it's not just one particular culture or religion that is represented here," said Douget.
Douget says this is a fun and creative way to keep the community up to date with their history.
I believe in living history and making it come alive; we are good about teaching our grandchildren and children about American and world history but not local history." said Douget.
Now, the money used to purchase the tickets for the cemetery tours will be used to remodel some of the older graves. If you would like to learn more about cemetery tours, you can click here.The cost to purchase tickets is $10.00 per person.
Tour Dates are listed below
Handicap Accessible Tours
October 13th and 20th at 3 pm.
More Tour dates and times are listed below.
October 12th Saturday
6 pm
6:30 pm
7pm
7:30 pm
October 13th, Sunday
2 pm
3 pm
October 19th Saturday
6pm
6:30pm
7pm
7:30pm
October 20th Sunday
2 pm
3 pm
