The Fete Dieu du Teche is making a special route next year that will see the Eucharistic procession head straight into the Teche Area.

Organizers announced this week that the Fete Dieu du Teche South will begin at Franklin at the Church of Assumption on Aug. 15, 2023 and then head north into Charenton, Jeanerette and New Iberia, ending at St. Peter’s Catholic Church for a vespers service.

This will mark the ninth year of the Eucharistic procession, which has garnered national attention in the past and regularly attracts Catholics from all over the country who want to participate in the religious occasion that also has local cultural ties.

The event includes a flotilla of boats that normally takes a route starting in Arnaudville and making stops in Cecilia, Breaux Bridge and finally ending in St. Martinville.

The purpose of Fete Dieu du Teche is twofold. Along with celebrating the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic tradition, the event also celebrates the anniversary of the French-Canadian immigrants who brought their Catholic faith to south Louisiana after being exiled from their homes.

The event is a solemn eucharistic processions where the sacrament is put in what is called a monstrance and carried by a priest through most of the procession.

The Eucharist is considered sacred and treated as if Christ is there. Catholics believe that when the host is consecrated during the Mass it actually becomes the body of Christ and becomes sacramental. Catholics believe that during the process it actually becomes the body and blood and is referred to as the transubstantiation.

The Eucharist is carried in the midst of a procession of boats that also carry religious statues, altar servers and other accompanying aids for Mass.

Fete Dieu du Teche has garnered national attention during the several years it has been put on in St. Martin Parish, with Catholics from all over coming to Acadiana to witness the unique event that also has heavy ties with Acadian history.