Commentary: My global cultural calendar
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| Published on Saturday, November 28, 2009 |
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By Jean H Charles
My cultural calendar for the year started on November 1 with the Day of the Dead. I can be found either in Greenwich Village, New York City attending the Halloween party, or Roseau, Dominica, enjoying the Creole Festival or Mexico City mingling with the natives feeding the spirit of the dead or Grand River or Port au Prince, Haiti.
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| Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol. |
This time, I was in Port au Prince. Early the night before, I went to the cemetery so as not to miss any action. There was none, except a band with some girls dancing a bad version of the Simpson Sisters. The next day, there was an orgy of activities in the cemetery. Baron Samedi, the grand priest who watches over the spirit of the dead ones, was performing his macabre dance filled with sexual innuendos for the pleasure of the crowd. On each side there was dance, food, and candles, a real carnival except the dead and the living were commingling in a ritual that can be seen only in Haiti or Mexico.
At night I was invited to a guede ceremony in a private home. It was for me an awakening. On a central table that seems like a hotel, you could find food, cake, liquor, candle and flowers. The guide or voodoo priestess descended from upstairs in full black regalia, with dark glasses, a fuming pipe in the mouth, pontificating like a queen coming into a grand ceremony. After some jokes, filled with sexual connotation (I detect some sexism in the language) she predicted the year will be a good one for the world and for Haiti. I left later, while more people were coming into the ceremony that would last until dawn.
On the last Thursday of November, you should be in New York City with the kids to attend the Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsored by Macy’s department stores. The children, as well as the adults, will regale into the giant balloons descending on Broadway. This year, Batman was the star actor, pleasing the young and the not so young. The next day on Black Friday, rush to the stores to stock up on goods and gifts for the holiday season. Make sure you ask the kids to prepare a report to justify their missing school. Their show and tell will regale those who could not attend the best show on earth.
If it is December, arrange to be in the Dominican Republic from the 20th to the 31st. The Dominicans celebrate Christmas with an intensity like there is no tomorrow, fireworks every night filled the towns from Santiago to Santo Domingo. Get yourself into the spirit; enjoy the merengue and the parties that take place in each corner.
You can fill your own calendar with the month of January, but be ready to pack and travel to Port of Spain, Trinidad, in February for the Carnival. It takes place the week end and the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Do not succumb to the temptation to be in Rio, Brazil; Roseau, Dominica, or Port au Prince, Haiti for their carnival. The action is on the Savannah plaza in Port of Spain. Once hooked, you will come back every year, except a second best venue for the Carnival can be found in Salvador de Bahia in the northern part of Brazil. Be ready for some rough handling that has more to do with capieora than pure violence.
In March you can again fill your own calendar, I usually find myself in Rome for Easter attending the Papal mass on the plaza of the Basilica dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. Seeing and listening to the Pope with the thousands of faithful from all over the world is almost a divine experience. The next day, Monday after Easter take the train to Florence; enjoy the shopping and the Tower. As an alternative, you might be in the United States, enjoying the New Orleans Jazz Festival. I have not been back since Katrina. It is still a major venue for serious music lovers. You can also try the St Lucia Jazz Festival. I have been promised a ticket by the St Lucia Tourist Board to attend and report. I am still awaiting to see if they deliver on their promise.
You can fill May and June with your own calendar but, come July, I usually head for Haiti for the Fetes champetres or the Fiesta Season. There from July 16 to July 30 be ready to go native and bathe in Sau d’eau to bring in the good luck for the year, and plunge into the mud of St Jacques in La plaine du Nord to chase away the bad luck.
If it is August, at the end of the month, I am in New York for the US Open where you will spend ten days of sheer delight in a setting that reminds one of the Garden of Eden. The rich and the powerful transformed into angels of paradise mingling with mortals, who all have the same passion for the tennis ball. While in New York, remain there for the first Monday of September to enjoy the greatest show on earth: the West Indian Carnival on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.
November is soon upon us again to start de novo the global cultural calendar. Go into the world, enjoy each day at a time. It is the principle that I have learned that may lead to a long life. | | | | Reads : 785 | | | |
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