Gumbo Ya Ya

by Robert Tallant and Lyle Saxon

Tallant and Saxon went to Louisiana and gathered every conceivable kind of folklore about cooking, ghosts, families, the landscape and all the different Mardi Gras traditions, including Mardi Gras Indians. The word gumbo is of African origin, meaning ‘everything mixed together’. The phrase ‘gumbo ya-ya’ is from the Creole and means ‘everyone talking at once’. So the book is a gathering of many voices talking about the richness of New Orleans folklore.