DSTC...Junkanoo!

We have just returned from Marsh Harbour where we watched this year’s Junkanoo Parade. Junkanoo is very similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or Trinidad’s Carnivale. Approximately three thousand people attended this much anticipated annual celebration and it is an amazing event. Six different groups participated and the costumes, music, dancing, horns and drums were phenomenal.

I Googled the history of Junkanoo and this is what I found on a Bahamas Government Website: "Junkanoo, named after the West African John Canoe Festival, originated in the Bahamas around the 17th century as a masquerade. Slaves, their faces hidden under a flour paste, celebrated on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Later flour paste was replaced by wire masks held on a stick. Junkanooers blew bugles and horns, and beat on goatskin drums. In the late 20’s when sponging was big business in the Bahamas many Junkanooers covered themselves totally in sea sponges! This 1935 photo shows a Junkanoo in a fabric costume skirted with strips of rags: he danced for ‘coppers’ to fill the money pouch hanging from his wrist."


Times certainly have changed and it is hard to believe that not only were there people under those elaborate costumes, but they were dancing down the street. Here are some pictures of the festivities, and as always you can click on them to make them larger and see the details.