Thursday, May 07, 2009

Labor Day in Sami, Curacao









I LOVE A PARADE!



Luckily for me there are a lot of them around. We saw the small notice quite by chance, that the fishing village of Sami north of Willemstad was having a celebration on Labor Day, May 1.


There were no other details so we just hopped in our rental car and navigated our way up there. On the outskirts of the town traffic came to a halt and costumed families walked down towards the water, so we just parked the car on the verge of the road and joined them.


The costumes were really beautiful and clearly all hand made. There was a lot of applicaye work with pictures of the harvest and the small colorful houses of the past. The costumes are modled on those actually worn a century ago. Several of the groups performed traditional dances during the parade.

The men were really wonderful - very much into the moment. Can you imagine those handsome men at the top left marching in those costumes in the U.S.? Well, maybe in Key West...
We had a brief shower mid way but very few even bothered to use umbrellas or get under cover. These children however caught my eye!
Later we walked along the small harbor. It was packed with local stands selling food and drinks


Two men provided music under a tent. One turned the handle of a huge "hurdy gurdy" machine while the other did the percussion.

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