Festivals
of Haiti
Activities for Haiti
Festivals
Carnival
and Rara
(Feb to April)
The most
festive time of the year in Haiti is during Carnival (or Mardi
Gras). The festivities start a couple of days before Ash Wednesday
and take place in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The days are
filled with music, parade floats and people dancing and singing
in the streets. The three-day carnival that ends on the Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday is traditionally a time of all-night
parties and escape from daily life.
Following
the Carnival in Port-au-Prince Rara celebrations, also known
as the ‘Peasant Carnival’ or ‘Rural
Carnival’, begin. These celebrations occur each
weekend during the entire period of Lent (the 40 days preceding
the Easter) and are a colourful and musical on-the-move show
of Voodoo society.
Rara bands
sing, dance, make music and march through the streets, displaying
the wealth and strength of their Voodoo congregation. Brightly
coloured and elaborate costumes adorn the dancers and musicians
and represent the strength of their protective Iwa (voodoo
spirit). The Iwa protects the group members from the Iwa of
other groups.
The Rara
bands use a variety of homemade (and often unique) instruments.
They include vaccines (bamboo trumpets), drums, horns, and
shakers of all sorts. The bands stroll through the countryside
picking up revelers on their way into the towns. Bands in
the most populous areas can have up to one thousand members
by the time the day is finished, as it's easy to become immersed
in the music as the Rara band moves slowly down the road.
Although the bands may look chaotic, the members follow strict
ritual codes of how, when and where to dance.
As Good
Friday and the end of the celebration approaches, the Rara
bands appear more frequently to fill the roads with bright
dancers and boisterous music, representing the strength of
their Iwas and showing off their health and vitality, wealth
and congregational strength.
Activities
Rhythm
& Music
No Carnival or Rara band would be complete without instruments.
All the instruments used by the Rara bands are homemade and
include drums, trumpets, horns, maracas and bells.
Try making your own musical instruments with the ideas
listed below:
Shaker
Fill a clean jar with dried rice or beans, tighten the lid
and shake out a rhythm while you dance.
Tambourine
Place a handful of dried beans or rice in an empty aluminum
pie plate. Glue an identical plate on top and once it is dry,
shake it, tap it and enjoy it!
Cymbals
All you need is two metal pot lids and some enthusiasm for
the noise!
Drums:
The drum is the most important Haitian instrument, with its
roots tied to Africa’s Vodun system of beliefs. The
main rhythm families include:
- Dahomey
- Three cow-skin drums (Katabo, Gonde, Manman) are played
by three people using 2 sticks, hand &bow (agida), and
1 hand/1 stick, respectively.
- Rada
- Three cow-skin drums (Boula, Segon, Manman) are played
by three people using stick, hand and bow similar to the
Dahomey.
- Petwo
- Two goat-skin drums (Ralé and Manman) are played
by hand only.
To make
your own variety of drums, use your hands to beat out a rhythm
on a number of household objects. Try different sized boxes,
pots and pans, tabletops, plastic containers and whatever
else you come across. Once you’ve experimented with
your hands, find drumsticks (2 small branches, chopsticks,
wooden spoons, etc.) and go through the house again.
A
sea of color
Lavish and colorful costumes worn during the Carnival and
Rara celebrations are not only fun and expressive but are
also used to display the wealth of the congregations that
make up the Rara bands. Many of the outfits are heavily sequined
and brilliantly colored creating a sea of beautiful colors.
Nothing beats a rainy day than wrapping yourself up in the
most colorful materials you can find while dancing and singing
your favorite songs. Get out your hats, feather boas, costume
jewelry and outfits and have some fun. Incorporate any instruments
you have in your house for even more fun.
Krik? Krak!
Life is hard in Haiti; poverty is high and much of the work
is labour intensive. To make the days go by more pleasantly,
Haitians use stories, songs and games of riddles. Due to the
high rate of illiteracy in Haiti much of the Haitian knowledge
and traditions are passed down the generations through this
storytelling.
This oral
tradition of sharing stories, fun and games is known to Haitians
as “Krik Krak”. When someone is willing to tell
a story they will shout out “Krik?” If people
within hearing distance want to hear the tale or riddle (which
is almost always), they’ll answer back “Krak!”
Over the years storytelling has evolved into a performance
art as the storyteller uses different voices for each character
and sings songs to embellish the narrative.
Tell your own stories. Share your adventures of the day at
dinner, or your favourite moment of the week at bedtime. This
is a great way to share your experiences with the rest of
the family in a fun and creative way. Don’t forget to
add a dramatic flare with songs and voices!
Share riddles with each other. Think up riddles about each
other and have everyone try to guess who you are talking about
as you sit around the dinner table (kindness is the key here),
or post a riddle on the kitchen bulletin board each morning
and share answers at dinner. Take turns coming up with the
riddles. Here are a few from .riddlenut.com to get you started:
 A woman
has 7 children, half of them are boys. How can this be possible?
For the answer, go to www.riddlenut.com and check the answer
to riddle #5 I can
not be seen, only heard and I will not speak until spoken
to. What am I?
For the answer, go to www.riddlenut.com and check the answer
to riddle # 568 The same
five letters can be anagrammed into four different words that
fill in the blanks in the sentence to make (somewhat) good
sense.
What are the missing words? The farmer
with hundreds of _ _ _ _ _ , deeply _ _ _ _ _ about the amount
of rainfall, and _ _ _ _ _ around with artificial watering
systems when the ground is dry enough to _ _ _ _ _ him about
the possibility of crop failure.
For the answer, go to www.riddlenut.com and check the answer
to riddle # 346 For some
great riddles for younger children, check out Just
Riddles and More Drapo
Art
Drapo art, also known as voodoo flags, are pictures made with
thousands of sequins and beads sewn onto cloth. Each work
of this sacred art takes days to make and when done, is a
beautiful and colourful piece of artwork. Check out elcouigifts.com
for some great examples of this wonderful artform.
To make sequin flags at home, gather a variety of beads and
sequins and sew them onto a piece of cloth in your own creative
pattern. Perhaps you want to make a family flag or wall hanging,
or maybe each family member wants to make their own piece
of art. For young children, consider gluing the sequins onto
paper rather than sewing them onto cloth. Working with such
tiny materials will provide wonderful fine motor skill practice,
but be careful that none get eaten!
Take
Action!
Haiti is a country steeped in poverty and hunger, political
upheaval and insecurity. A great family activity this month
involves charitable action. Talk about how Haiti is a country
with children in need. Talk about poverty. Talk about political
corruption. Talk and then take action. Collect money to donate
to organizations such as Save
the Children (see below for more information). Take in
your bottles, organize a bottle drive, hold a bake sale, start
a coin collection, or hold a garage sale and send the profits
to make a difference. Involve your families, friends, schools,
and communities.
Save
the Children is a non-political, non-religious organization
that provides both emergency relief and long-term development
assistance through partnership with local communities, government
bodies and international organizations. Through our programs,
Save the Children tackles key children's rights issues including:
health, HIV/AIDS, education, nutrition and food security,
gender discrimination and early childhood development Save the
Children Canada supports "Centre de Santé Emmaüs"
a health centre located in Port-au-Prince which provides health
care to more than 5,000 street kids. The Emmaüs health
centre provides a diverse program which includes medical and
psychological consultations, pharmacy and medicine services,
laboratory analysis, follow-up for early pregnancy (street
girls), immunization, prevention training, dental care, street
workers, etc. A bus to transport children from different shelters
and from the street to the centre is planned in the near future,
and an office providing legal assistance to children in conflict
with the law and children in prison will soon be opened. This
health centre is the result of joint efforts made by Save
the Children Canada, partner organizations and other international
institutions working to improve the quality of life of children
in difficulties.
For more information on Save the Children’s involvement
in Haiti, visit their website. http://www.savethechildren.ca/en/whatwedo/haiti.html
Donations
can be made on-line, by mail or fax, or over the phone.
Another way to support the Haitian people is to utilize your
purchasing power to support fair trade initiatives as a family.
Check out One
World Projects, who offer a variety of traditional Haitian
crafts such as banana leaf hampers and sisal baskets. One
World Projects pays Haitian craft makers fair prices
for their products while supporting environmental initiatives
to protect rainforests. The products are well worth taking
a look at.
Teens and adults in the family may also be interested in joining
Amnesty International. Amnesty International
is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally
recognized human rights. The voice of Amnesty International
is a voice of over 1.5 million people worldwide who actively
campaign through actions such as letter writing for the humane
treatment of people everywhere and specific persons whose
rights are being violated. Currently,
an appeal is in place on behalf of Haitian radio journalist
Michele Montas. Check the Amnesty
International website for more information on how you
can help Michele simply by writing a letter, but be sure to
check Amnesty’s
letter writing guidelines first. |
