I remember when parents talked about some wedding ceremonies and they used words that sounded like “shari bari” — a word I now know was charivari but sometimes called a “shivaree.” The custom of charivari was brought to Louisiana by the Creoles and Acadians. Charivari is French but is used in both English and French in Canada, while “shivaree” is mostly used in parts of Acadiana. The custom was practiced in France from early times. It was based on a superstitious ceremony in which making noise by beating drums, or beating on pots or other objects to plague a bride and groom who had neglected certain conventions or failed in some way to conform to what was generally expected of them.

The charivari custom has been common in our area but is seldom practiced today. Good reasons for celebrating a wedding with a charivari would be widower in his fifties taking a teenage bride or two elderly people who would elope and not go through formal wedding ceremonies. When situations such as these occurred, neighbors would say “it is time for a charivari” and the newly “married” would be serenaded by bells ringing, spoons clanged, car horns blasted, shotguns blasted, or any way possible to create a loud noise. The ceremony, as I remember it, generally lasted all night long and was followed by an all day feast of eating, drinking and celebration



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