Fais do-do


A fais do-do is a Cajun dance party; the term originated before World War II.
According to Mark Humphrey, the parties were named for "the gentle command young mothers offered bawling infants." He quotes early Cajun musician Edwin Duhon of the Hackberry Ramblers:
"Do-do" itself is a hypocoristic shortening of the French verb dormir, used primarily in speaking to small children. The phrase is comparable to the American English "beddy-bye",, and is embodied in an old French lullaby, a song sung to children when putting them down for the night. Its existence in Cajun culture as a source for dances, or bands, comes from an affection for the term itself.
Joshua Caffery, however suggests the true derivation is more plausibly the dance call dos à dos, the do si do call of Anglo-American folk dance; and that sources such as Duhon are merely "repeating the same apocryphal explanation known by almost anyone who lives in Southern Louisiana."
Occurrences include the following: