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Belize River Front Real Estate and Investment Properties
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Carnival in Belize
Belizeans love to party! We love holidays and will find just
about any reason to have a celebration. Apart from the many different
celebrations held nationwide, Ambergris Caye has four special occasions.
The San Pedro International Costa Maya Festival. This Costa Maya festival is a celebration of the Mundo Maya
countries throughout Central America. The first festival was held in 1991
and was called the Sea and Air Festival. All five Mundo Maya countries
(Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) participated.
Dancers, cultural performers and musical entertainers from these countries
are hosted in San Pedro Town for six days of celebrations.
The festival is held either during the month of July or
August, and commences on the Tuesday of the designated week and ends on
Sunday. Each country is assigned a night on which their culture and talent
is displayed with Sunday being the grand finale.
Beginning in 1996 the first ever Reina de la Costa Maya or
Queen of the Mayan Coast Beauty Pageant is held on the first night of the
festival. Contestants from each country compete to offer the best
representation of the Central American coast using the categories of
cultural costumes, swimwear and evening gowns.
Entertainers offer festival goers a wide array of music
including Punta, Reggae, Soca, Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia, and traditional
Maya music. Cultural presentations are usually presented in the form of
theatrical dances. These dances tell of the Mayan culture, traditions and
rich heritage. Organized by a non-profit committee to promote goodwill
among Central American countries and to encourage visitors to Belize, the
festival grounds also has booths displaying arts and craft, games,
clothing, food as well as rides and carnival games for the young and young
at heart.
San Pedro Town is one of the very last places in the country
of Belize that observes Carnival. San Pedro's Carnival is similar to the
New Orleans Mardi Gras (in meaning, not size). It is observed during the
week leading up to Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season and is a pagan
celebration during which time people can indulge in bodily pleasures that
they will have to give up during lent. The local government of San Pedro
Town usually organizes a week of fun events for visitors and locals.
Comparsas dancers form groups and dress themselves in
outlandish customs and dance for money through the main streets of the
town. One of the most popular comparsa groups is the male comparsa group.
Groups of men usually well known and influential men in the community
dress up like women and dance. Each year prizes are given to the best
dance group and for the past few years the men have taken home the prize.
Children from all ages also participate in carnival. The
community leaders annually stress that the season should be celebrated in
a respectful and peaceful manner. It usually is. On the last day of
Carnival painters flood the street to paint each other. This simply means
that a mixture of water paint and water or raw eggs is used to paint
people on the streets, the goal being to paint as many people as you can.
If you don't want to be painted stay in your hotel room. It can be wild
but fun.
San Pedro Day
San Pedro Day is observed on June 27th every year and
celebrates the first group of families who fled from the Caste War in
Yucatan Mexico and made Ambergris Caye their home around 1847. Each year
the town celebrates by having parades, educational workshops and lectures
on the islanders' history and ancestors, special church masses, blessings
of the fleet and local fishermen, dances, special concerts and a fun day
for children and adults.
Township Day
San Pedro was declared a town by the government of Belize in
1984 and November 27th is observed as Township Day. The local government
Town Board organizes annual events including boat races, fishing
tournaments, parades, musical entertainment and a small festival to
celebrate the occasion.
Carnival
Carnival in the northernmost town of Corozal is reminiscent of
its earlier days in Belize City. Adults make costumes, host
practices and organize the road march while children and teenagers
are the dancing stars. Since participating groups represent the
various elementary and secondary schools in the district, the
carnival itself has been made into an educational experience. While
floats and costumes depict the Maya, Mestizo, Garifuna, Chinese, East Indian,
Creole and Mennonite cultures, this educational focus does not take away from the festive
mood. From Santa Rita Hill to Corozal Bay, carnival in Corozal Town is one non-stop jam session.
In neighboring Orange Walk (a.k.a. Sugar City), the ten member committee of the Orange Walk
Carnival Group has followed in the footsteps of the Belize Women for
Cultural Preservation.
Born as the Latin pagan custom, carrus navalis (ship of
fools) in which a magnificently-decorated ship
on wheels was pulled to the temples, it grew into the
Italian carne (flesh or meat) vale (goodbye) in which
agitators unmanageable by the Church, celebrated Bacchanal. The day of unbridled
merrymaking so named in honor of Bacchus (Roman god of
wine), marked Shrove Tuesday (also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi
Gras), the eve of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the forty
Lenten days of eating and drinking restrictions.
Today, during the designated day in September, 70,000 plus
inhabitants and visitors line the streets of Belize City, from
Central American Boulevard to the Marion Jones Sporting Complex,
to witness the spectacle.Clearly influenced by carnival in the Caribbean, carnival in
Belize is an engaging experience in music, dance, and costumes. It is here that the
resemblance ends because carnival in Belize has evolved into its
own. An absence of the million-dollar machinery that drives the most
famous Caribbean carnivals has left Belizeans with no option but to
use head and heart to power the carnival engine. 
At the end of each carnival they store the costumes and
floats, thus building a visual archive of carnival and of
the cultures they have showcased. For them, carnival is not merely
limited to the street parade; carnival is an opportunity to learn
and pass on traditions. Since this new flavor was added to the pot
last year, the group has been spotlighting their Mestizo
and Maya culture on the streets of Orange Walk. Judging
from the increasing popularity of Orange Walk carnival, the "Latin"
flavor has certainly caught Belize's attention. Whether you choose the Corozal, Orange Walk, or Belize City experience, Carnival is
about letting go of your inhibitions. From a distance it looks like
a frenzy of colors spurred to movement by towers of speakers pumping out lively soca
beats. From the sidelines it becomes a revelry of brightly
colored costumes gyrating seemingly possessed
bodies that inhabit them. The jerky, rotating, and
trembling dance movements are further accentuated by swaying beads, shimmering
materials, and feathered projections adorning the
costumes. The masqueraders dance themselves into a high that feeds
on itself like an insatiable cycle, keeping fatigue at bay in a move
to outbid itself. The soundtrack is hype, energetic, persuading all
within earshot to "jump", "mash it up", "raise yu hand", "wine yu
waist", "tremble it", and any combination thereof.
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Web site and all contents © Copyright Graham Heyes 2006 - 2007,
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