Happy Front Day Eve 2026

Dear Friends,

Mother has spoken, and we have every reason to heed her. Tomorrow we shall once again observe Front Day, that most glorious of New Orleans traditions, when the dew point descends into the 50s, the sun shines gloriously, the thermometer does not hit 80, and the City Park live oaks feel for the first time in nearly half a year temperatures below 60. We may now retire our anxious vigil over the Gulf, secure in the blessed knowledge that the tropics shall trouble us no more this year. No civic holiday, federal observance, or even Mardi Gras compares to our first proper cool front.

Mother, whose authority in these matters remains unimpeachable, shall preside over the festivities and worship, while Uncle takes his accustomed place at the organ. I have attached below the order for this year's service for those unable to attend in person. We do not live stream the service, but we encourage our friends from afar to join us in spirit as the sun begins its descent. This year, we begin the service at 6:15 and we encourage your participation through this order. I apologize to our dear friend, Jim Rockford, that we will not sing Just a Closer Walk with Thee during the service. However, Uncle says we will play that song during the Autumnal Agape immediately following the service. He will also take requests, so prepare now your favorite hymns.

We shall assemble with our drinking chocolates, sing our beloved hymns, and offer thanksgiving to Almighty God for the beauty of creation and God's preservation of our families, friends, and beloved city through another long summer. Front Day is a reminder that even after months of heat, apprehension, and tribulation, relief arrives in its appointed season. May we receive it with humility and gratitude, and may we never become so accustomed to our blessings that we fail to recognize them.

You are encouraged to bring your favorite drinking chocolate to share. Last year we had nearly 30 varieties. Hymnals and orders of service printed on Smythson paper shall be provided. We ask that you arrive at our home no later than 6:00. No RSVP is required as there will be ample provisions and all are invited. Wool-clad and splendidly attired, we shall gather beside the firelight, where oak embers glow like the last vestiges of an October sunset. Conversation and laughter shall mingle with the fragrance of burning wood, as the cool presses gently against the windows. For a little while, the world will be as it ought to be, and we will rejoice with gratitude to have lived long enough to sit together in its warmth.

May Mother’s forecast prove correct, the chocolate be plentiful, and the organ sound forth.

Happy Front Day to all!

Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU


A history of Front Day

The glorious history of Front Day commences in 1911, the birth year of Tennessee Williams, when Great, Great Grandmother established the observance that would eventually become our family’s most cherished autumnal tradition. Mother claims credit for inventing Front Day in 1998, a contention Grandmother steadfastly disputes, maintaining that Mother merely revived the holiday Grandmother's grandmother had established in 1911. Grandmother's grandmother thus conceived the holiday in the aftermath of the sweltering summer of 1911, when the arrival of autumn’s first genuinely refreshing front seemed an occasion worthy of thanksgiving and fellowship.

Mother deserves credit for restoring Front Day in 1998, but credit is due to Great Great Grandmother. For 18 years in the early years of the last century, the tradition flourished along Prytania, Uptown. The stock market crash of 1929 brought an abrupt and melancholy end to its annual observance. It remained dormant until Mother revived it the year of my eight grade graduation. Grandmother, who heard the story from her own grandmother and passed it along to Mother during her childhood, recounts the origins of Front Day in her own words:

“My Grandmother, your Great, Great Grandmother was the first known New Orleanian to celebrate Front Day. Your Mother heard my bedtime stories about Front Day as a little girl, and she has done well to revive and cultivate the holiday. But she was acting on an idea my Grandmother created.

“Grandmother talked about the heat during the summer of 1911. She was part of a volunteer women’s auxiliary from Christ Cathedral and First Presbyterian Churches tasked with decorating the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in City Park. This is the museum that later became NOMA, which I know you so love visiting. It opened during the Advent season, I believe December 15, of 1911.

“Anyway, Grandmother talked about how that summer was unrelenting. Three times each week, she took the St. Charles and Canal St. streetcars before fetching a horse drawn carriage from Canal St. to City Park. She talked about how hot working in the stone building was.

“September of 1911 was hotter than any month she had ever felt, and this was in a time when Septembers were usually closer weatherwise to what we think of as October or even early November weather.

“When the morning of October 18, 1911 broke, my Grandmother was up with the sun. She recalled until her last days how it was one of the most beautiful days of her life. The sunrise was perfect and a light northerly wind brushed her face with temperatures in the low 50s reminding her of the goodness of creation. She felt so wonderful that she left early that morning and walked the entire distance to the museum, which was a five mile jaunt.

“Once the women were finished with their duties that afternoon, my Grandmother invited them all back to her Prytania home. There she had a lovely spread which included hot chocolate from Switzerland she purchased from the Katz & Bestoff on Canal, which became the future site of the failed Hard Rock Hotel. Thomas, the church organist, was summoned, and quickly arrived to play their custom home organ. I can still picture her indelible, childlike smile when she reminisced about singing those hymns and drinking chocolate on that first Front Day.

“She and her friends gathered for years on each first sunny day of Autumn with highs below 80 and lows below 60. When Front Day came on October 21, 1929, celebrations were held as usual, but three days later, Black Thursday hit America. Some of her friends were ruined, and they associated Front Day with the stock market crash. And never again in her lifetime did the people of New Orleans celebrate that great day. It disappeared until your Mother revived it.

“Unlike your mother, the original Front Days did not have to be on Saturday. I wish your mother would change that requirement.”