Have you traveled to the Bahamas at Christmas or New Years?
I am very fortunate to have visited the Bahamas during Christmas and New Years many times. That’s me in the picture with one of Atlantis’ towers in the background. I’m standing on the Sydney Portia bridge that unites Paradise Island with Nassau. It’s used as much to walk across as to drive across.
At Christmastime you will find a parade like no other. The uniqueness in costumes and floats are a sight to behold. The parade doesn’t start until evening with the celebration running all night and into late the next morning. The parade is called Junkanoo and it is a Bahamian cultural celebration that takes place every boxing day1 (the day after Christmas) and new year’s day bringing a cavalcade of color, music, dance, and spirituality to the streets of New Providence in a celebration that represents freedom. It was how the slaves expressed jubilation from their lives of captivity.
In slavery times, the Bahamian people were brought to a new world of strange sights, sounds, and tastes as well as people who were vastly different from themselves. In order to keep the connection with their homeland, they did what they knew; they celebrated. Through this celebration they resisted their oppression on two of the three days of rest given to them each year: the day after Christmas (boxing day) and New Years Day. Junkanoo has been an important part of the development of the Bahamian culture. After slavery was abolished, the festival continued; it has been claimed as an important part of Bahamian culture.
I never tire of watching the fabulous costumes, floats, and marching bands each year. Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, it does. Check out some of my pictures.
By the way, if you’re into shopping, especially, for luxury items such as watches, diamonds, and gems, Nassau has a great shopping district. I’ve purchased rings, bracelets, watches and other fine items during my visits over the years. With prices being negotiable, I have done just that. I have successfully negotiated all of my purchases to a price with which I could live with. Never could you do that in the States, but you can always haggle when you’re visiting the Bahamas and the islands of the Caribbean.
I must tell you, though, staying on Paradise Island is pricey; four dollar signs ($$$$). Very expensive! I personally landed into a sweet deal for lodging because of a friend. That friend had a timeshare of 30+ years in a little three-story U-shaped building right on a parcel of property nestled across a dredged out waterway for the yachts of the Atlantis marina. Spectacular views, close to everything you could imagine or want in a vacation. I wanted to stay there for two reasons, 1) my dear friend was there at her timeshare and 2) who wouldn’t want to live in Paradise for a week or more. So I went searching for a owner that was looking to rent their timeshare. Bingo! I found someone who no longer used their timeshare and my foot got in the door; a wonderful affordable place to stay on Paradise Island was then open to me.
If you ever feel the need to break away from your normal Christmas traditions, a holiday on Paradise Island is my recommendation.
1 Boxing day…In the Caribbean regions that were once under British rule, the charity box exchange on December 25 wasn’t between aristocrats and employees–it was between slave-owners and their slaves. Boxing Day was likely the only day off from forced labor that slaves received all year.
