The turkey is the one thing a New Orleans Thanksgiving shares with the rest of the country. Photo: Karola G / Pexels
Thanksgiving in New Orleans is a four-day weekend of a 1907 road race through City Park, horse racing at the Fair Grounds, the Bayou Classic football game and parade downtown, and Creole dishes you will not find on a New England table. In 2026 it runs Thursday, November 26 through Sunday, November 29, with the game on Saturday the 28th.
The city came late to the holiday. Louisiana's first official Thanksgiving was declared in 1846, and the Catholic parishes took longer still to adopt what the Daily Picayune called a New England custom. Then, as it does with everything, New Orleans rebuilt the day around a parade, a race and a long lunch.
Here is what to expect this year, and how each tradition got here.
When did New Orleans start celebrating Thanksgiving?
New Orleans did not observe Thanksgiving until the 19th century, and it began as a Protestant holiday in a Catholic city. Governor Alexandre Mouton declared Louisiana's first official Thanksgiving on January 15, 1846, and the Daily Picayune described it as "a good old New England custom." The early services were held in Presbyterian churches, among them the Poydras Street church of the Reverend Theodore Clapp.
The Catholic churches came along more slowly. In 1863, when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanks, the city was under Union occupation, and the Provost Marshal's office asked that the proclamation be read to clergy in every parish. The Archdiocese posted a notice that year that the Hermann-Grima and Gallier Historic Houses read as the start of Catholic Thanksgiving observances in New Orleans.
By 1918 the holiday was fully the city's own. That Thanksgiving, more than 5,000 soldiers and sailors paraded from St. Louis Cathedral to Audubon Park along St. Charles Avenue after a Victory Mass marking the end of the First World War, according to research in Loyola University's history department.
What is the Bayou Classic, and why is it Thanksgiving weekend?
The Bayou Classic is the annual football game between Grambling State and Southern University, played in New Orleans on Thanksgiving weekend since 1974. The two schools first met in 1932, but the game took its name in 1974, when it was played at Tulane Stadium. In the early 1970s it was one of the "Big Three" commitments that helped make the Superdome a reality, and it has been played in New Orleans each November since. Our post on the history of the Superdome covers that building's own story.
The game is the center of a weekend, and the official 2026 schedule looks like this:
- Thursday, November 26, 3 PM: the Bayou Classic parade through downtown.
- Friday, November 27: the Greek Show and Battle of the Bands at the Caesars Superdome, with doors at 5 PM. Grambling's Tiger Marching Band and Southern's "Human Jukebox" are the reason many people come.
- Saturday, November 28, 9 AM to noon: Fan Festival in Champions Square.
- Saturday, November 28, 1 PM kickoff: the 53rd Bayou Classic, Southern vs. Grambling, at the Caesars Superdome.
The organizers note that all events are subject to change, so confirm on the official site before you set your weekend around them.
Marching bands are the heart of Bayou Classic weekend, from Thursday’s parade to Friday’s Battle of the Bands. Photo: K / Pexels
Why does New Orleans run and race on Thanksgiving morning?
Because the city has been doing it for more than a century. The Turkey Day Race was founded in 1907 by the New Orleans Athletic Club and runs every Thanksgiving morning through City Park. The 2026 edition is the 119th. Its organizers call it the fifth-oldest continuously held race in the United States, which makes it older than most Thanksgiving traditions anywhere.
- The race: Thursday, November 26, 2026. The kids' half-mile starts at 8 AM and the five-mile run and walk at 8:30 AM, starting and finishing at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park.
- The horses: the Fair Grounds Race Course on Gentilly Boulevard, a short walk from the lake end of Esplanade Avenue, has run races since 1872 and calls itself one of the nation's oldest tracks. Its 155th Thoroughbred season opens November 19, 2026, and Thanksgiving Day brings the 102nd running of the Thanksgiving Classic, with a noon post time.
Opening the racing season on Thanksgiving was the Fair Grounds' custom for generations, and the Daily Racing Form reported its return in 2019 after a few years away. If you want to see it, our walking guide to Esplanade Avenue ends a few blocks from the track.
The Jockey Club Race Course, today’s Fair Grounds, in an 1873 engraving made the year after the Louisiana Jockey Club was founded. Engraving: Jewell’s Crescent City Illustrated, 1873, public domain
What is on a Creole Thanksgiving table?
A New Orleans Thanksgiving keeps the turkey and surrounds it with dishes from the Creole and Cajun kitchen. Four of them have real histories:
- Stuffed mirliton. The pale green squash, called chayote elsewhere, was grown in Louisiana long before the French arrived. Food historian Jessica B. Harris describes it as "a Thanksgiving table denizen in Louisiana," usually baked and stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat or ground beef. At Dooky Chase's, Leah Chase's stuffed mirliton told guests a serious Creole feast was coming.
- Turducken. A chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, created at Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana, for a customer in 1984, the year the shop opened, according to the owner's oral history with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Chef Paul Prudhomme made it famous.
- Cane syrup. Louisiana's own sweetener, boiled down from sugarcane juice on family farms. Steen's in Abbeville has made it since 1910, and a pecan pie made with cane syrup instead of corn syrup is the local version.
- Daube glacé. Spiced beef set in its own jellied stock and sliced cold, a winter dish New Orleans Magazine calls one of the city's great cold-weather meals. It shows up on holiday tables from Thanksgiving through Réveillon.
If you are staying with us, every unit at Jean Lafitte House has a kitchenette, so a mirliton from the French Market or a slice of pie from a Quarter bakery can come home with you.
Made with Louisiana cane syrup, pecan pie is the local end to a Creole Thanksgiving. Photo: Keighla Exum / Unsplash
Where can you eat Thanksgiving dinner near the French Quarter?
Several of the Quarter's old restaurants serve Thanksgiving Day, and two had posted their 2026 plans when we checked. Muriel's Jackson Square has a Thanksgiving 2026 menu on its site, and the tourism board's 2026 Thanksgiving guide lists Tujague's on Decatur Street. Arnaud's, Antoine's, Brennan's, Galatoire's and Mr. B's Bistro are open, so check each site in mid-November for holiday service and reserve as soon as a menu appears.
Two things to add to the weekend:
- Celebration in the Oaks at City Park opens Friday, November 27, 2026 and runs through January 1, 2027, closed December 7, 14, 24 and 31. It has lit the park's live oaks since the late 1980s, and some of those oaks are more than 800 years old. We have a full post on Celebration in the Oaks and City Park's oaks coming later this month.
- The weather cooperates. November's normal high at the airport is 71 degrees and the normal low 54, so a morning race and an afternoon on a balcony both work.
Plan Your Visit
- Book restaurants first. Thanksgiving Day seatings at the Creole grand dames fill weeks ahead.
- Register for the Turkey Day Race online before you travel. Start and finish are at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park, a short ride up Esplanade Avenue on the 91 bus.
- For the Bayou Classic, buy game and Battle of the Bands tickets from the official site and plan to walk or take a streetcar toward the Superdome.
- Thursday afternoon's parade is downtown. The route is announced closer to the date on the official site; arrive early and stay for the bands.
- Bring a layer. Evenings in late November run cool, and Celebration in the Oaks is outdoors.
- Give yourself Sunday. The weekend is full, and Sunday brunch in the Quarter is the quiet reward.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Bayou Classic in 2026? Saturday, November 28, 2026, with a 1 PM kickoff at the Caesars Superdome. The parade is Thursday, November 26 at 3 PM and the Battle of the Bands is Friday, November 27.
When is the Turkey Day Race? Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, November 26, 2026, at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park. The kids' run starts at 8 AM and the five-mile at 8:30 AM. It was founded in 1907.
Are restaurants open on Thanksgiving in New Orleans? Yes. Several French Quarter restaurants serve a Thanksgiving menu, among them Muriel's Jackson Square and Tujague's in 2026. Reserve early and check each restaurant's site for its holiday plans.
What foods are special to a New Orleans Thanksgiving? Stuffed mirliton, turducken, daube glacé and pecan pie made with Louisiana cane syrup are the dishes locals look for alongside the turkey.
Is Thanksgiving weekend a good time to visit New Orleans? Yes. The weather is mild, the Bayou Classic fills the city with marching bands, Celebration in the Oaks opens the day after Thanksgiving, and the holiday season's Réveillon dinners begin December 1.
A Quiet Thanksgiving Weekend Above the Avenue
The whole Thanksgiving weekend sits within a streetcar ride of Esplanade Avenue: a race at dawn, horses at noon, a band on Canal Street. The quiet end of it, on a shared balcony above the avenue and a courtyard to come back to, is ours.
Every unit has a kitchenette, and our rooms sleep two to six, with two-bedroom suites that have balcony access and sleep six if you are bringing the family. Book your stay at Jean Lafitte House for the weekend.
