O.W. carnival draws a crowd…
The Belize City Carnival may grab all the media coverage, but over the course of the September celebrations, virtually every community in Belize does something to mark the patriotic spirit of the season. On Sunday, while most city folks were recovering from the road march through the old capital, News 5’s Patrick Jones and Rick Romero headed to Orange Walk.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
There was no shortage of marching bands in the parade, but the highlight of Sunday’s road march in Sugar City were the choreographed presentations by three local carnival groups.
Elena Carballo, Librarian, Sandy Hunter Library
“We have the trees and we have the main character is Jonas Matapalo. He will be saying some things to the public about conservation.”
Conservation and education were the common themes among the groups. In the case of the Sandy Hunter Library band, a first time entrant, Elena Carballo says the masqueraders carried the message of the importance of taking care of the rain forest.
Elena Carballo
“Jonas Matapalo is a story written by a Belizean author David Ruiz. And the story is about conservation, so it’s actually like a little drama that we have up here with the children promoting conservation.”
Carballo says work on putting the story together started in July, but the energy and excitement of children, who come from different schools in Orange Walk, made it easy to pull off.
For the twenty-four members of the Back Street Carnival Group, manager Yvette Moss says they chose to stick with what worked last year.
Yvette Moss, Back Street Carnival Group
“Well we will be representing the colour of nature and this is the second year performing in the road march.”
Patrick Jones
“What exactly will the children be doing?”
Yvette Moss
“They will be dancing for the carnival, the soca selections, and they will be taking part in this event today.”
But the largest band by far, complete with its own imported choreographer, is the Orange Walk Carnival Group. With only a month’s preparation, manager Flavia Burgos says it was either put up or shut up.
Flavia Burgos, Manager, O.W. Carnival Group
“We believe that our public deserve the best, and therefore we feel that we are not confident enough to put something that is not well choreographed. I believe our public needs more than the jump up and Punta that they need, something that will have a meaning. And so, we hired them because we wanted to do a cultural presentation all along the parade. And so our parade will have different spots where the presentations will be highlighted.”
But more than just gyrating bodies in elaborate costumes, Burgos says that in keeping with the theme of the September celebrations, the thirty-member group chose to depict an important part of our history in their presentation.
Flavia Burgos
“My group is depicting the Mayas. We believe the Maya is part of our history and our education depends a lot on our history. So the theme right now, which is telling us “Education the hope of young and growing nation,” we decided to pick that because we feel that for any growth and development to occur we need to know our history. If we can know our history, who we came from, what they stand for, I think we can move on from there.”
From Gods of the Mayas…to colours of the rainforest the bodies in motion spoke a language of more than just revellers out to have a good time. It was taking education out of the classrooms and unto the streets, if only for a holiday weekend. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
Winner of the competition was the Orange Walk Carnival Group.
