What are the traditions of Ambergris Caye?
Christian Burn
A lot of different holidays are celebrated in Ambergris Caye and in Belize in general. They celebrate most of the British holidays like the Sovereign Day, Labor Day, and your classic holidays like Easter.In September we have what they call September Celebrations, which are really some high holidays like Independence Day in September.
St. George’s Caye Day (depicted on the picture of the stamp) is also a big celebration because that's the day when something...
A lot of different holidays are celebrated in Ambergris Caye and in Belize in general. They celebrate most of the British holidays like the Sovereign Day, Labor Day, and your classic holidays like Easter.In September we have what they call September Celebrations, which are really some high holidays like Independence Day in September.
St. George’s Caye Day (depicted on the picture of the stamp) is also a big celebration because that's the day when something like 200 men fought off Spanish armada on a little island called St. George’s Caye. They defended the island and had the Spanish back off, so Belize was a free country from then;it's a huge holiday.
We have Garifuna Settlement Day in November.
In Belize we celebrate pretty much a holiday a month, except for the summer months. July and August are the only months on the calendar that do not have holidays. Then in September we have three holidays.
Posted December 2, 2014
Lisa McCorkle Guerrero - DIAMANTÉ
On Ambergris Caye we have Dia Del San Pedro, which is our patron saint. I believe it is held in July. They have boat parades during that day, and a whole bunch of little activities. When I was a kid, at 5AM in the morning all the boats got together for a procession. The event is religious as well because San Pedro is our patron saint. The preachers or priests bless all the boats. They make a fake dummy of a man and then at the end of this festival they burn it, which is...On Ambergris Caye we have Dia Del San Pedro, which is our patron saint. I believe it is held in July. They have boat parades during that day, and a whole bunch of little activities. When I was a kid, at 5AM in the morning all the boats got together for a procession. The event is religious as well because San Pedro is our patron saint. The preachers or priests bless all the boats. They make a fake dummy of a man and then at the end of this festival they burn it, which is part of the tradition as well. Lobster Fest is also held in July. It’s a whole week where all the restaurants prepare – it’s when the lobster season opens. A lot of expats participate. You get like a lobster passport and you go to all these restaurants where you get a discount if you have this passport. Each restaurant has a lobster specialty. At the end of the week, on Saturday, the whole central park area is blocked and almost all the restaurants in town have a lobster competition. They have anything from lobster drinks to lobster cheesecake, to lobster ice cream. I don’t like lobsters, so I’m probably the only one who eats somewhere else first and then goes to the event just to socialize. It’s a really unique and different event that gets really full. They’ve been doing it now for a few years and it’s just gotten to the point where people are actually planning trips around the Lobster Fest Week.
In August, there’s a big event called the Costa Maya Festival where the town has a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday event where there are participants mostly from places in Central America – Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, who participate in a beauty competition. There’s food from these different places; that’s also pretty interesting.
Our Art Carnival is another big event, held in February. Our Carnival is different than the Carnival in Brazil. Ours is 3 days of people painting each other with water paint. If you go out on the street they have what we call Comparsas, which are groups of people dancing to different themes. It’s really interesting. There are tourists that really dig it. It’s completely different.
(Lobsters caught for Lobster Fest, Ambergris Caye, Belize,pictured.)
Posted September 20, 2015
Relmer Arceo
In Ambergris Caye, we have the famous Wahoo Competition which is held here in San Pedro (the main town in Ambergris Caye) every March. A wahoo is a kind of fish, and during the Wahoo Competition, the fishermen participate in groups to catch the most number of wahoo fish. At the end of the competition, the teams of fishermen gather in the main dock in San Pedro to have their wahoo catch weighed. The group with the most catch or the group who has caught the biggest wahoo wins US $5,000...In Ambergris Caye, we have the famous Wahoo Competition which is held here in San Pedro (the main town in Ambergris Caye) every March. A wahoo is a kind of fish, and during the Wahoo Competition, the fishermen participate in groups to catch the most number of wahoo fish. At the end of the competition, the teams of fishermen gather in the main dock in San Pedro to have their wahoo catch weighed. The group with the most catch or the group who has caught the biggest wahoo wins US $5,000 to $7,000 worth of prizes. A lot of people from different parts of Mexico and from all over the world come to Ambergris Caye for the Wahoo Competition.
Another tradition we have here in Ambergris Caye is the Juan Carnaval Festival which is celebrated from the 21st to last day of February. Juan Carnaval is an old tradition here in San Pedro. During the Juan Carnaval festival, participants form different comparsas (a group of 15 persons), dress up in costumes of funny characters and go dancing to Spanish music in the streets of San Pedro where the public pays them to dance.
During the festival, men dress like women and women dress like men, and they paint their bodies to make themselves look funny. The Juan Carnaval Festival is a three-day event. On the third day of the festival, which is usually a Tuesday, participants burn a big doll that they’ve created to represent Juan Carnaval. There is a lot of alcohol involved during the Juan Carnaval Festival in Ambergris Caye.
We also have the annual Costa Maya which is a four-day activity that takes place here in San Pedro on the first week of August every year. The Costa Maya is like a beauty pageant where young ladies from Central America participate and one of them is selected as queen to represent the Mayan festivity. The Costa Maya participants are not just from Belize; they’re from all Central American countries and also Mexico.
On the first day of the Costa Maya, they select the queen of the event, and on the following night we have what we call the “Noche International” which means “International Night”. During the Noche International, artists from other parts of the world come and perform. For example, we’ll have singers and dancers from Mexico, Jamaica, and Belize performing in San Pedro.
Halloween is an event that is celebrated at the end of October. Holiday Hotel usually holds the Halloween event where people can go dressed like witches, funny characters, a pumpkin, etc. At the end of the day, the judges choose the ugliest character and grant him a prize.
[Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri), pictured.]
Posted February 15, 2017