Happy Front Day: November 4, 2023

Friends,

Good morning! It is with joyous anticipation and grateful excitement that I bring to you good tidings and the good news that tomorrow, November 4, 2023, will be Front Day. As most of you know by now, Front Day is defined by the following conditions:

Sunny skies
Dew point in the 50s or below
A high below 80
A low below 60
A Saturday

Front Day only occurs in New Orleans and it is a celebration of the end of the tropical season. It is marked by the consumption of drinking chocolates. While outdoor celebrations may take place during the day, the merrymakings of chocolate and hymn singing occur at night, indoors. If you do not have an organ in your house, a piano will suffice. We sing at least ten classic hymns while Uncle plays the organ. Hymns, fellowship, and hot chocolate are a perfect pairing, and I cannot see how you can celebrate Front Day without them.

This year there have been several Front Day false alarms, including October 7, 14, and 21. Each was quite close to meeting all the requirements, and I even entreated Mother to loosen her definition of Front Day. She, being the consummate literalist, refused.

When I asked Mother the importance of keeping all the criteria of her definition of Front Day, she responded, “TulaneLSU, when you were a baby, there was a storm called Juan who bumped along the southern Louisiana coast for an entire week, spreading rain and wind, and ruining what is traditionally the best weather week of the year, the last week of October. Part of the reason we have Front Day is to celebrate the end of both summer and the end of tropical threats. Had I taken your and Great, Great Grandmother’s liberal stance on Front Day, it would have been celebrated on September 27 (74/58). But September 27, 1985 was not a Saturday, and thus, Front Day did not arrive until November 9 well after our soils had dried from Juan’s uninvited presence. Are you really willing to sacrifice the definition of the day to appease some of your friends on the OT?”

The history of Front Day stretches all the way back to 1911. Mother claims to have invented Front Day in 1998, but Grandmother always corrects her when she makes that claim. Grandmother is happy to tell you the story of her grandmother minting the day in 1911 after that brutally hot summer, which was the standard for hot New Orleans summers for 69 years until 1980 reared its sun on us. Grandmother tells the story like this:

“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.”


Previous Front Days:
1911: October 18 (77/53)
1912: October 24 (79/50)
1913: October 13 (79/56)
1914: October 15 (69/53)
1915: October 8 (74/56)
1916: September 30 (73/52)
1917: October 9 (77/51)
1918: September 21 (73/51)
1919: November 3 (78/54)
1920: September 30 (79/49)
1921: October 4 (79/59)
1922: October 9 (70/54)
1923: October 20 (68/50
1924: September 30 (71/53)
1925: October 20 (73/48)
1926: October 2 (79/58)
1927: September 23 (78/55)
1928: October 19 (78/58)
1929 October 21 (76/57)

1998: October 10 (75/56)
1999: October 23 (72/57)
2000: October 7 (71/56)
2001: October 20 (79/56)
2002: November 2 (66/53)
2003: November 15 (80/50)
Mother projected a high of 78 this day, but the mercury rose to 80. It was the only time in 25 years she has failed accurately to predict Front Day. We still had a brilliant Front Day, even with the warmer than normal temperature. It was a very good thing we celebrated on this day because the next day that met Front Day parameters was December 27.
2004: November 6 (71/47)
2005: October 29 (71/49)
2006: October 28 (69/54)
2007: October 27 (70/55)
2008: October 25 (77/52)
2009: October 17 (67/54)
2010: October 30 (76/50)
2011: October 22 (75/53)
2012: October 27 (64/53)
2013: October 26 (74/51) The week before met the temperature definitions, but it also was a rainy day.
2014: October 4 (73/57)
2015: November 14 (67/57)
2016: October 22 (75/57)
2017: November 11 (72/54)
2018: October 27 (75/55)
2019: October 26 (79/57)
2020: October 31 (70/52)
2021: October 30 (68/53)
2022: October 22 (79/56)
2023: November 4

As you see, November Front Days are unusual but hardly unprecedented. We had one of the all-time great Octobers, and it appears we will be stretching that beautiful weather streak into November and maybe even December. This holiday season and Advent are shaping up to be unforgettable.

This year’s party will include a stellar hot chocolate selection with big names like Ghirardelli double chocolate, Scharffen Berger, Silly Cow sea salt and caramel, Saxon Traditional Belgian drinking chocolate, and Williams-Sonoma hot chocolate. For the first time, we will also serve both milk and dark hot chocolates by Max Brenner.