Holidays
Haiti has a variety of holidays. Some which are similar to the ones we have on our calendar. Haiti has it’s Independence Day, Ancestor's Day, and Carnival. (Cook Ross) Haiti’s Independence Day is on January 1st which is the day they were able to free themselves from the French. Ancestor’s Day is on January 2nd which is the day Haitian honor the people that fought for their independence. (Celebration of Haiti's 210 year of Independence) The Carnival didn’t start it Haiti. This celebration started in Italy hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It started as a tradition where they would dress in costume and fold a festival before the first day of Lent. As time went by this tradition spread to France, Spain and eventually into to Europe during the middle ages. As christian explorers started exploring they took their beliefs or customs with them. Many of these explorers ended up on islands, Haiti being one of them. The island was filled with slaves that were owned by the explorers they had to take up all of their customs. Once the slave were able to free themselves they kept some of the customs that their owner had taught them.The Carnival, being one of them. This celebration is used to have fun since this leads to Lent, the forty day period of penance before easter. ( Annenberg Learner) |
Language
Haiti was a colony that was ruled by the French so it isn’t a surprise that it’s official languages are and Haitian French Creole.(Cook Ross) The term Creole comes from a Portuguese word meaning “raised in the home”.(Creole: THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF HAITI) This became the official language in 1961. About 5.7 million Haitians speak it, which is about 90 to 95 percent of the population.(Cook Ross) Only about 10 percent and speak both the Creole and French because they were either taught at school or at home. (Creole: THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF HAITI)The Creole is used for most of the everydays communication. This language includes French mixed of African languages and other ethnic groups because of slavery.(Haitian Creole) When Haitian greet new or formal acquaintances they greet with hand shakes. They typically address them by their possession: monsieur, madame, doctor, etc. When they greet their friend or family they usually kiss both cheeks and call them by their first name. When they talk to their elders they are usually called aunts or uncles even if they are not related. If they are about to enter a room and there are people in the room they are obligated to greet everyone in the room.(Cook Ross) SOME GREETINGS: Bonjou kouman ou ye? - Hello how are you? Sak pase? - What’s up? (Cook Ross) |
Religion
In Haiti the country is 90% Catholic and 10% is Protestant. There is also Christianity in the island. Haiti is mostly famous for the believing in voodoo. Even Catholics and Christians believe in the rituals with voodoo.(CIRRIE) There was a time in the 1900s that many temples and voodooist were destroyed because Catholic authorities that this two things couldn’t coexist together. In 1987 the constitution passed the freedom of religion act which allowed voodooist and catholics to live in harmony.(Religion in Haiti) Voodoo is a mixture of African and Haitian beliefs, it’s a “complex cosmology” that has a big number of supernatural spirits that have to be respected.(CIRRIE) Like most of the other religion voodoo only has one god, Bondye, but if prayers want to be heard they have to pray to the spirits.(Religion in Haiti) The name of the spirits is Iwa. It is believed that every family has an Iwa with them and that their daily life is to make that spirit happy. This spirit can appear in a person’s dream or even possessing them and speaking through them. If a request they make is not made the spirit gets really mad and their will usually be consequences.(CIRRIE) |