By Tenny Tamulong
EBC Florida Bureau
NASSAU, BAHAMAS (Eagle News) — In the early morning of New Year’s Day, and previously on December 26 (Boxing Day), the locals of the Bahamas were out on Bay Street to celebrate Nassau’s largest festival parade, Junkanoo. Junkanoo is a street parade where Bahamians showcase extravagant and colorful costumes and floats.
To create the costumes, locals use an assortment of materials, such as scraps of newspapers, feathers, colorful recycled papers and even sea sponges. While marching in the parade, Bahamians play traditional instruments like drums, bicycle horns, cowbells, whistles and brass to create lively and extraordinary sounds.
“Junkanoo is phenomenal,” Norell Williams, an avid participant of the Junkanoo festival stated. “I was tired [from a day’s work], and when I think about the drums and the music and feathers and the costumes and I say, ‘I have to be on Bay [street]!'”
Junkanoo is known to be as an expression of the Bahamian identity and culture. The late Jackson Burnside, co-founder and advocate of Junkanoo commented on Jukanoo.
“It is a symbolic struggle on the part of black- working class Bahamians against their oppression by whites,” Burnside said before his death in 2011.
Nowadays, Junkanoo is a tourist attraction. People can experience the island’s music, dancing and interesting lifestyle. The focus is less on revolution and more on competition. However, it still is a celebration of freedom for the Bahamians. So, if you ever decide to visit the Bahamas, consider going during the last week of December, and celebrate with the locals during Junkanoo.
(Eagle News Service)