This morning was one of those mornings. I went to San Ignacio to do an errand, and when I got there realized that the necessary paperwork was comfortably sitting on my kitchen table. I ran a few other errands while I was there, and a feeling of foreboding started as I was walking through town. "Hmm," I thought, "there are a lot of suspicious looking groups of people standing about. I wonder if there is a parade today."
September in Belize is independence month... because one day just isn't enough. Actually, several patriotic holidays are scattered throughout the month, and with holidays moving around to avoid weekends and new holidays being added, one can never be quite sure when one will run into a parade. However, I was reasonably sure that today was not a holiday. I drove home and back... and on my way back into San Ignacio ran into not one but THREE parades. Luckily I was able to backtrack and take alternate roads, unlike some unlucky drivers who got quite stuck.
At the bank I enquired what the parades were for. "Children's Day" was the answer. Honestly I'm not entirely sure what the point of Children's Day is (when we were little and complained to my mom that there is mother's day and father's day but no children's day, she would reply, "every day is children's day.") A Belizean parade is not as elaborate as many you see in the States, with a few floats or a band if you are lucky, but mostly people just walking together in the street. Today seemed to be school children walking (and bonking each other on the head with flags and screaming). It was probably close to 90 degrees out, but it didn't seem to be fazing the kids. For them it's probably one of their favorite days of the semester... cause any day not sitting in class is a good day, right?
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| someone lost their flag... |
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| mini cadets started the parade. very cute. |
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| all schools have uniforms here, and each school has their own colors. |
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| the sole drummers in the whole parade. They were having a lot of fun. |
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