What are the traditions of Belize?

At the end of July and the beginning of August, in Belize we have the Costa Maya Festival, which is a really huge and interesting regional festival. All the countries in Central America come together to share a tradition of modern dance, different particular performing artists, and food.

 

They also compete in this annual competition they call the "La Reyna De la Costa Maya"; the Queen of the Mayan Coast. Each country submits a contestant who...

At the end of July and the beginning of August, in Belize we have the Costa Maya Festival, which is a really huge and interesting regional festival. All the countries in Central America come together to share a tradition of modern dance, different particular performing artists, and food.

 

They also compete in this annual competition they call the "La Reyna De la Costa Maya"; the Queen of the Mayan Coast. Each country submits a contestant who competes for the title. The competition consists of a series of different skills. Then there is a performance and a bikini competition. It's a big draw to the island of Ambergris Caye.

 

They have a cultural costume competition and they show costumes from the Panamanian traditional costume to the Belizean traditional costume ( Miss Guatemala 2011, pictured). They come out on stage with these traditional costumes. Not only are the costumes incredibly heavy, but they are also incredibly difficult to manage because they usually stand 10 feet or so in the air, the contestants’ shoulders have weighted things and there are feathers coming out of the costumes. It is really something to see. Then everybody votes, the winner is announced, and it is a big deal.

 

Last year at Costa Maya, which we had here on Ambergris Caye, Belize won. So Belize is going into this year's Costa Maya festival as the reigning champion.  It will be Interesting to see what happens.

Let me start with food. The traditional food of Belize is rice and beans. Stew chicken and potato salad is our staple dish. We eat a lot of rice and beans. Some of the other traditions that Belize has is relative to celebrating holidays. We celebrate Independence Day and Baron Bliss Day.

 

Some of the traditions of Belize are not written in stone but they are understood traditions amongst the people of Belize such as "Cook Saturdays." Everybody...

Let me start with food. The traditional food of Belize is rice and beans. Stew chicken and potato salad is our staple dish. We eat a lot of rice and beans. Some of the other traditions that Belize has is relative to celebrating holidays. We celebrate Independence Day and Baron Bliss Day.

 

Some of the traditions of Belize are not written in stone but they are understood traditions amongst the people of Belize such as "Cook Saturdays." Everybody eats barbecue on Saturdays. On Sundays, everybody dines with the family. There are other indirect traditions of Belize.

 

The people of Belize are into building close ties with their families. In terms of religion, majority of the people here are Catholics.

 

Belizeans love to dance. We have a very sensual way of dancing.  The two main types of music that we dance to are the Punta, and the Punta Rock (which is little faster). These dances are unique to Belize. I am proud to be Belizean because everywhere I go, the way we dance really stands out; its unique to Belize so nobody else dances the way we do. One of the traditions that I like is the dancing, and the way it projects our culture and our history.