Monday, December 30, 2013

Junk and New? No! Junkanoo!

posted by Alexander

On the 28th we went to Junkanoo. Junkanoo is probably something of a new concept for everybody who has never been to the Bahamas including us. Luckily for all us ignorant folk, I’ve done some research!

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Dinghying in the dark was kind of scary, but fun.

Junkanoo is a parade/celebration that usually happens on December 26th. It originated from the time when all the African people in the Bahamas were slaves. They only had one day of the year where they could be with their families and express themselves. This basically resulted in Junkanoo, a tradition that still lasts many years after the slaves were freed. When we went we saw fantastic papier mache costumes that looked like they had been worked on all year or longer.

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The Junkanoo costumes were great.
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A lot of work went into them.
There was a really catchy song that they played involving drums and trumpets with trombones and tubas.
We had heard the exact same song in Nassau when we were anchored there. They must have been practicing for Junkanoo! (They played all night and I barely slept.) We met our friend Colleen. The whole park was lit up with Christmas lights and it looked amazing.

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Playing in the park with some of our boat friends.

We all watched Junkanoo together as well. It was tons of fun.

The parade went by us and when it was over we had to leave which made me sad because they were going to do another parade. But it was really late and we all went straight to sleep when we got to the boat.
Junkanoo was probably the coolest parade I've ever been to and if anyone else gets the chance to see it I say you should definitely go.

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More great Junkanoo costumes.

By the way nobody knows where the heck the word Junkanoo came from.  My favourite theory is that it comes from the name “John Canoe” who was apparently an African tribal chief who demanded the right to party with his homies even after being brought to this part of the world as a slave.  There are other theories as well.  It is a pretty cool name for a festival, anyway.

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