National Crawfish Day is an annual celebration held on April 17th, which is especially popular in the Southern United States. This holiday is dedicated to the Southern delicacy of crawfish, which are freshwater crustaceans that closely resemble small lobsters.

In various regions, they are known by different names, including crayfish, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, and rock lobsters. Crawfish belong to the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea, and they breathe through gills similar to those found in feathers.

While some species can be found in brooks and streams with flowing freshwater, others thrive in swamps and paddy fields. Although most crawfish cannot tolerate polluted water, the Procambarus clarkii species is more resilient. As omnivores, they consume both living and decomposing animals and plants.

HISTORY

Crawfish have a rich history spanning various eras and cultures, with some of the earliest records of their existence and consumption dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.

Native Americans are believed to have used reeds covered in deer meat as fishing lures to catch crawfish, and the Houma Tribe even adopted the red crawfish as their emblem as early as the 17th century.

In the 1700s, Acadians settled along bayous in the Southern US and turned to consuming crawfish due to its affordability and accessibility.

By the 1800s, they began adapting traditional Canadian lobster recipes to use the smaller crustacean, and this trend spread after Creole restaurateurs in New Orleans caught on.

The Louisiana spring custom of crawfish boils emerged in the 1900s and became a prominent aspect of the state’s culture.

The crawfish was officially designated as Louisiana’s official crustacean by the state government in 1980, with the state’s annual production of 100 million pounds mainly consisting of red swamp and white river crawfish.