Junkanoo
13 February 2009
Here is a picture from a Junkanoo event we attended at Regatta Park in Georgetown. It featured a talk on the history of Junkanoo and a brief performance, which was just fabulous.
We went with Willie and Sara of Daisy, who we first encountered while locking through the Dismal Swamp waaaaay back last year. They are 19 and taking a year off from college to go cruising, which I think is just fabulous. Why didn't I think to do that?
More about Junkanoo, it is a street parade with music, which occurs in many towns across The Bahamas every Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year's Day. The largest Junkanoo parade happens in Nassau, the capital.
Junkanoo was celebrated in various parts of the Americas, and variants of the word's orthography may be found in each place - Jonkonnu or John Canoe in Jamaica; John Kuner in North Carolina; and John Canoe in Belize.
Junkanoo groups "rush" from midnight until shortly after dawn, to the music of cowbells, in costumes made from cardboard covered in tiny shreds of colourful crepe paper.