The local primary school on the island, Caye Caulker Roman Catholic School (CCRCS) recently had a culture day celebrating the heritage, food, and music of the 5 cultures of Belize: Chinese, Garifuna, Creole, Mestizos, and Mayan. The parents sold food. The children dressed in native costumes and sang and danced.
Surprisingly, there was no Gringo/white culture. I’m not sure why. It could be because, historically, they were the oppressors over the other cultures. In the pictures below you may think you see a California Surfer Dude as I did, but he was assigned to the Creoles. From what I could gather, the white kids are assigned to one of the five cultures based on their age groups.
Chinese
Chinese girls, Cultural Day
Chinese fan dancing, Cultural Day
Garifuna (mixture of African slaves and Carib Indians)
Garifuna boy, Cultural Day
Garifuna girls, Cultural Day
I tried some of the Garifuna food for lunch. I ate potato pudding which was delicious. It was mashed sweet potato and almost (almost) looked like bread pudding. I also tried hudut which consisted of mashed plantains which is to be dipped in the fish and gravy. The mashed plantains by themselves were dry but tasted much better once dipped in the gravy. The fish still had the bones and I don’t like to fight with my food. The coconut gravy was delicious. I finished only the gravy.
Mashing plantains for hudut
hudut
Creole (or Kriol who are a mixture of African slaves and European, mainly the English)
Creole girls dancing. Creole boy (what I call California Surfer dude) is playing the bottle. Cultural Day
Creole bottling, drumming, and dancing. Cultural Day
Mestizo (mixture of Maya and Spanish)
Mestizo teacher and girls dancing la cumbia. Cultural Day
Mestizo boy, Cultural Day
Maya
Maya girl at Cultural Day
Mayans preparing for their dance. Cultural Day
It was fun but a hot few hours. I’m thinking next year I may represent my culture: Texas.
