Culture of Saint Lucia

The Culture of Saint Lucia blends the influences of African, French, and English heritage. The official language of the island is English but Kreole, a form of French patois, remains an influential secondary language. The people are predominantly Catholic but the religious climate is tolerant.

Festivals

Lucia holds every year two main traditional festivals, La Woz ("The Rose", on August 30th) and La Magwit ("The Marguerite", on October 17th), organized by the two rival historic cultural associations (societés) with the same names whose affiliates comprise most of the country's population.

The Christmas season is celebrated and a number of small festivals and parades take place throughout the island.

Saint Lucia also celebrates a cultural festival known as Jounen Kweyol (Creole Day). This is celebrated each year on the on the last Sunday of October. On the Sunday of this week, the various towns chosen to host this festival put out the result of their grand preparations; local foods and drinks such as breadfruit, green fig, plantain, salt fish, king fish, manicou (opossum), roast pork, Johnny Cake (fried bake) and a famous dish, bouyon (fish, chicken or meat stewed with dasheen, yams, plantains, banana and dumplings), lime drinks, guava drinks and more. Most people commemorate this day by wearing the island's national wear known as the Madras. Persons who do not want to wear the extreme layers of skirts and dresses make clothing out of the special plaid material.

Secular observances include an internationally-renowned Jazz Festival. Beginning in 1991, this annual festival draws crowds of music-lovers from around the world.

Music

The musical culture of Saint Lucia includes an indigenous folk music tradition, as well as other Caribbean music genres such as soca, zouk and reggae. Saint Lucia is produces very high quantity of zouk music which leaves them as one of the most leading county to do such. Mordern Saint Lucia today has produced more talented musicians than the years before some these artist include Teddyson Jonhn, Ricky T, Superman hd, Kayo, Zionomi, shani Young Mecca, Crocodile, yardie, Mongstar. Saint lucia also produced production giants in the Soca realm penn & ace the creators of studio 758 who produces beats for the likes wyclef jean, Machel Montano, busy signal,[faye ann lyons]], skinny fabulous, Mr Vegas, benjai, Sizzla, Anthony B, Third World, Maxi Priest jus to name a few Courtney curty Louis of Dutch Productions who produces for the likes of Mr killa denise belfon Shurwayne Winchester, Machel Montano, cecile other popular productions include Nigel Nicholas,Gilly and Patrice of Slaughter Arts Records,TC Brown of Changa Productions,francis 'leebo' delima of Heights studio,Matthias of Rhythm House

Literature

Derek Walcott is the most prominent St. Lucian writer, Nobel Prize winner in 1992.

Art

Dr The Honourable Dunstan Gerbert Raphael St. Omer, renowned St. Lucian artist, was knighted in the 2009/2010 New Year's honours list, for his services to art. The investiture ceremony was held on 9th April, 2010 at Government House where the Governor General on the advice of Her Majesty the Queen, invested Sir Dunstan St. Omer with the Insignia of a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). The UK Telegraph has described him as “the Michelangelo of the Caribbean”. Designer of the St Lucian flag.

Sir Dunstan St Omer

Carnival

Traditionally, in common with other Caribbean countries, Saint Lucia held a carnival before Lent. In 1999, it was moved to mid-July so as not to clash with the much larger Trinidad and Tobago carnival, and in effort to attract more overseas visitors. It is a two day festival where people walk about two miles. Before carnival there is a competition among women in the country on who to be the queen of carnival of year.

Sport

See also: Cricket in the West Indies

Another popular sport in Saint Lucia is Football. Football played all over the island as well as cricket. Darren Sammy is currently the captain of the west Indies Cricket team

External links

• St. Lucia Jazz - Official site by St. Lucia Tourist Board
• St. Lucia Folk Research Center
• LucianCarnival.com - Official website of Saint Lucia Carnival
• Luigi St Omer - Web site of the most prominent St. Lucian painter Luigi St Omer

This culture-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Saint Lucian culture Saint Lucia stubs Culture stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР Direct response marketing Skolt Sami Look at other dictionaries: Saint Lucia — Infobox Country native name = Saint Lucia common name = Saint Lucia national motto = The Land, The People, The Light national anthem = Sons and Daughters of Saint Lucia official languages = English demonym = Saint Lucian capital = Castries… …   Wikipedia Saint Lucia — Introduction Saint Lucia Background: The island, with its fine natural harbor at Castries, was contested between England and France throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries (changing possession 14 times); it was finally ceded to the UK in… …   Universalium Outline of Saint Lucia — …   Wikipedia Saint Lucia — Sainte Lucie Pour les articles homonymes, voir Sainte Lucie. Commonwealth of Saint Lucia (en) …   Wikipédia en Français Music of Saint Lucia — Saint Lucia, an island in the Caribbean, is home to many vibrant oral and folk traditions. The music of Saint Lucia is based on elements derived from the music of Africa, especially rhythmically, and Western Europe, dances like the quadrille,… …   Wikipedia Flag of Saint Lucia — The flag of Saint Lucia was adopted on March 1, 1967. The exact design has varied. The current flag is blue, with a gold isosceles triangle below a black arrowhead; the upper edges of the arrowhead have a white border. The blue color stands for… …   Wikipedia Saint Lucy's Day — ( Sankta Lucia , Saint Lucia) is the Church feast day dedicated to St. Lucy and is observed on December 13. It retains traditional forms of celebration mainly in Scandinavia, parts of the United States and southern Europe. It is celebrated in… …   Wikipedia Saint Pierre and Miquelon — Saint Pierre and Miquelon …   Wikipedia Saint Kitts And Nevis — Introduction Saint Kitts and Nevis Background: First settled by the British in 1623, the islands became an associated state with full internal autonomy in 1967. The island of Anguilla rebelled and was allowed to secede in 1971. Saint Kitts and… …   Universalium Culture of Canada — This article is part of a series History Canadians Canadian …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”