Culture with a capital “C”

Westfest, West.

Westfest

This diverse state is loaded with cultural offerings for Texans and visitors alike. Catch one of the many festivals and experience the colorful celebration of culture–Cinco de Mayo or the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio, Wurstfest in New Braunfels, the Czech Polka Festival in Ennis, and the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival are but a few that shouldn’t be missed.

Other Cultural Celebrations

• The spirit of native peoples who lived in the area now known as Seminole Canyon State Park, east of Langtry in the Big Bend region, can still be felt as clearly as the wind across the plains. Pictographs tell the story of a prehistoric people who lived in small groups in the area. Guided tours of one of the oldest cave dwellings in North America offer a more in-depth look at the area’s history.
• The country’s oldest Polish settlement, Panna Maria, southeast of San Antonio, continues to celebrate its rich heritage. The village’s Catholic church bears a cross carried from Poland to Texas by the original settlers, and a bed-and-breakfast operated by a convent is located between the Immaculate Conception Church and the St. Joseph School Museum.
• Mardi Gras! Galveston offers all the feasting and merrymaking that traditionally precedes the season of Lent, with a touch of New Orleans style. With krewes, parades, live music, and elaborate masquerade balls, the city comes alive during the season. Green, gold, and purple are on display everywhere as hundreds of thousands of revelers participate in Texas’s largest Mardi Gras celebration.
• Each spring, Kilgore breaks out the pipes and drums to kick off the Celtic Heritage Festival. Clan tents are set up to assist visitors in tracing family connections, identifying clan affiliations, and researching crests and tartans. Scottish and Irish dancers thrill festival-goers with their dances, and the Celtic storyteller enthralls listeners with ancient tales.
• Just south of Dallas, the Czech polka festival in the small town of Ennis draws people from miles around who come to dance, consume kolaches and sausage, and get back to their roots. The National Polka Festival is celebrated each Memorial Day weekend, but Czech culture infuses the town year-round. If you’re lucky, you might even hear an old-timer speaking the language.
• People from all over the world have settled in Texas, and the Panhandle Plains region is no exception. The name of the town of Shamrock was summoned as a good luck charm by an Irish immigrant sheep farmer. A piece of the original Blarney Stone is mounted in a downtown park, and St. Patrick’s Day is a major celebration here. In Amarillo, as in many Texas cities, the name itself is Hispanic in origin (it means “yellow”). The culture permeates the community at every level of society, from the corner taquerias to Spanish-language rock bands. Just to the north of Amarillo, the Flint Quarries National Monument celebrates the lives of Native Americans who lived and worked here 12,000 years ago.