September Celebrations Officially Launched

Patrick Faber

The official ceremony for the launch of the September Celebrations was held on Sunday in San Ignacio at the Falcon Field. The launch, which kicks off the celebrations for the two-hundredth and twentieth anniversary of the Battle of St. George’s Caye and the thirty-seventh year of Belize’s Independence, was celebrated under this year’s theme ‘Belize Da Fi Wi – Now & Forever, 8867.’ Minister of Culture Patrick Faber, who also serves as the Chairman of the Celebrations Commission, addressed the gathering on Sunday.

Patrick Faber, Chairman, National September Celebrations Commission

“There is no better education for the future than the guarantee that we will always be able to remember the past and honor our valiant forefathers and national heroes like the Right Honorable George C. Price and the honorable Philip S.W. Goldson who made significant strides in our development while advocating for our sovereignty, territorial integrity and our independence. ‘Belize Da Fu Wi Now and Forever, 8867, reflects our desire to maintain our sovereignty and our national aspirations and as that famous tune now goes, ‘we are not willing to give up a centimeter, not a blade of grass’. The development of our national requires the dedicated efforts of one generation after the other. Belize Da fi Wi invokes memories of our Maya ancestors, advanced civilizations, of captured Africans brought to our shores as enslaved and indentured workers and memories of all peoples who over the centuries have come to this land and now call Belize their home. It is up to them that we owe our very existence for without our ancestors for effectively occupying and building, laying the foundation for nationhood we would simply not be here today.”