DECEMBERNine Mornings
| The unique Vincentian cultural
tradition of "Nine Mornings" is enthusiastically celebrated in Bequia.
For the nine nights before Christmas, music, singing and revels takes
place up and down the island in an exuberant countdown to
Christmas.
The precise origins of the custom are unknown,
although it is believed to have developed in St. Vincent after
emancipation, (and in its present form in the late 19th /early 20th
century) as a fusion of multicultural forms of celebration - such as
music, drums and dance - with the Christian festival of Christmas, and
later, in association with the early morning Christmas Novenas,
formerly celebrated at midday by the Catholic church.
So don't be surprised if you hear songs and reveling into the wee hours in Christmas week; its all part of Christmas on Bequia! Bequians take their carolling very seriously. Shortly before Christmas groups representing the islands villages and communities compete in an evening carol competition attended by most of the island and its visitors. |
| The only thing that is missing from Christmas on
Bequia is snow! The Christmas spirit is the same on the island as
anywhere in the world - good will and season's greetings abound,
families and friends get together, and shops are full of unusual gifts
and delicious treats. Midnight services on Christmas Eve at both the
Anglican church in Port Elizabeth and the tiny Catholic Church in
Hamilton welcome all worshippers.
On Christmas Day, as on Christmas Eve, hotels and restaurants offer traditional Christmas fare with all the familiar trimmings - with that extra West Indian flair. New Year's Eve in St. Vincent & the Grenadines is more commonly, (and quite sensibly!) known as Old Year's Night, and Bequia really knows how to "ring out the old and ring in the new"! The harbour fills with visiting yachts, and ashore there are celebrations in every restaurant and bar - all the stops are pulled out for this one special night of the year. A spectacular firework display over Bequia Harbour is the highlight of the evening. Made possible by the generosity of private individuals and Bequia's business community, it's a climax to the holiday celbrations that no one will want to miss. Midnight is accompanied by a sky lit up with fireworks and flares, popping corks and warm embraces - and then the partying really begins! |
|
JANUARY 20129th Bequia Mount Gay Music Fest 2012, January 26th - 29th
& Mustique Blues Festival in Bequia (January 27th)
Homepage of the Bequia Music Fest 2012
|
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The Bequia
Tourism Association, (in conjunction with the St. Vincent Department of
Tourism & Basil's Bar), is the organising body responsible for
bringing the world-famous Mustique Blues Festival to Bequia for one
glorious evening in January.
The Blues Festival began in Mustique in 1996 as the brainchild of Basil Charles (known to everyone on Mustique simply as "Basil"), and London's Lady of the Blues, Dana Gillespie.
In
the
ensuing
years the Blues Festival has become a must for everyone
visiting St. Vincent & the Grenadines in late January and early
February. Most of the performances are held at Basil's Bar in Mustique,
but Bequia hosts one Friday night performance - and a real party
atmosphere pervades the venue when it's Bequia's turn to put on the
show! Thursday, January 26th Friday,
January
27th,
De
Reef Lower Bay, 8.30pm: Saturday, January
28th, Please check back for final line-up! Sunday, January 29th, 12.30pm, De Reef Lower Bay |
De Reef is jumping!
Mahalia
- NEXCYX
FEBRUARY 2012
Sunshine School Auction, February 19
at Gingerbread Restaurant
Viewing from 11.30am - Auction starts 1pm
| The Bequia Sunshine School for
Children with Special Needs, now in its 29th year of operation, holds
its annual Sunday fund-raising auction in mid-February. This very
special school is a privately funded educational institution
administered primarily by a local board of directors. The government
pays for the salary of the head teacher and one other only; all other
costs have to be raised by private donation - and the need for funds is
constant.
The benefits of the school to Bequia's children with special needs are huge, and vitally important to their development as individuals. Currently there are 31 children attending daily classes; their progress in all aspects of learning and skill training is extraordinary - due in no small part to the dedication of the teachers.
|
The
annual auction is now in its sixteenth year and is fast becoming one of
the most fun events of the season. Items for the auction, and for the
Jumble Sale which follows later in March, are all donated by
well-wishers and energetically amassed and sorted by the auction
organisers in the weeks before. There could be literally anything up for sale - jewellery, antique prints, art work, clothing, furniture, household items, marine items, donated dinners and services and handicrafts made by the students at the school are all likely to be on offer. EC$20,000 is enough to cover the running costs of the school for four months, and this is the target that is aimed for each year. Advance details of the auction are published in Bequia This Week from Christmas onwards. To find out more about Bequia Sunshine School
contact principal |
April 2012
Bequia
Heineken
Easter
Regatta (April 5th - 9th, 2012)
To go directly
to the online pre-registration form click HERE
Easter Regatta
2011 final Press Release - click HERE
See the Bequia Heineken Easter Regatta 2011 Slideshow
| For as long as any one can
remember, there has always been a Bequia Regatta. Formerly at Whitsun,
now for the last 30 years held at Easter, Bequia's Regatta is rightly
famous for its unique blend of local boat racing, yacht racing
shoreside activities and Bequia hospitality.
A fleet of more than thirty traditional local boats
from Bequia and her neighbouring islands, some no more than 12 feet
long, others a majestic (by comparison) 28 feet in length and capable
of extraordinary speed and agility, compete out on the sparkling waters
around Bequia. It's a fabulous, colourful weekend, full of fun and camaraderie, skill and tradition, with the whole island caught up in regatta fever. Sunday's Regatta Lay Day on Lower Bay beach sees a grand fete for boatloads of visitors from the mainland, while Friendship Bay Beach hosts a family Layday with Sandcastle and Crazy Craft competitions, and easter activities organised by regatta sponsors Bequia Beach Hotel.
The hard working volunteer members of the Bequia
Sailing Club are responsible for putting on this high profile event
every year, and the event is internationally renowned as the largest
regatta in the region, the unique traditional local boat racing, and
the well run, challenging yacht races which include the J24 Southern
Caribbean Championship. Bequia Sailing Club
officers 2011: Easter Regatta 2012 Schedule |
|
Bequia Carnival
JUNE
 |
Bequia Carnival takes places at
the end of June, and is a delightfully informal and spontaneous affair.
With St. Vincent's "Vincy Mas" now the nation's premier tourism event, Bequia's own Carnival looks set to move forward as well and become a true small island carnival and a permanent fixture in the island's cultural calendar. |
JULYFisherman's Day
| If Bequia Regatta is a
celebration of Bequia's traditions of boat-building and seamanship,
Bequia's Fisherman's Day (held on the first Saturday after Vincy Mas)
is a lively and fiercely contested demonstration of the island's
abundant skills at harvesting the waters that surround the island.
Once again the Rotary Club of Bequia are the
organizers, with the famous "Rotary Wives" doing a fine job in cooking
up the catches and providing delicious fresher-than-fresh barbecue and
baked fish lunches, complete with rice'n'peas, dasheen, yams,
plantains, green bananas, coucou, breadfruit and coleslaw. The competition begins at first light, and all catches have to be in by early afternoon. Not surprisingly, it's the biggest catch by weight that wins, but there are various categories for the different types of fishing - trolling, bottom line deep water, bottom line inshore, etc. Plus of course a special prize for that all important Biggest Single Fish! Spectators also get an all too rare chance to buy as much fresh fish as they want, straight off the dock and those in the know come prepared with bags to carry their purchases away! |
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Bequia Basketball
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PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
March
14:
National Heroes Day
 "Chatoyer the chief
of the Black Late
18th
century
engraving
from
1773 original by Agostino Brunias |
2002 was the first year that National Heroes Day was celebrated in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. On this day the country remembers the death of the country's first national hero, Carib Chief Joseph Chatoyer who was killed in 1795 during the second Carib War - a fierce and determined resistance to the British occupation of St. Vincent. After Chatoyer's death, the Caribs continued their defiant fighting for the next year or more, only finally surrendering in late 1796. The British were so determined to rid St. Vincent of all possibility of future Carib resistance that virtually the entire Black Carib population - close to 4500 in number - were shipped to the uninhabited island of Balliceaux off Bequia's north east coast, to await onward transportation to Roatan in the Gulf of Honduras. But by March 1797, when transportation from Bequia to Roatan began, it is estimated that nearly half of the Caribs had failed to survive their months of exile on Balliceaux, and still more died on their journey to Roatan. |
| On August 1st 1834, the "Act
for the Abolition of Slavery in the Island of Saint Vincent and its
Dependencies" came into effect. However for the 22,500 slaves in St.
Vincent at that time, their life was not noticeably changed. Only slave
children under the age of six (officially recorded in 1835 as being
2,959) became free as of that date.
The remainder, including about 14,000 attached to estates, were subjected to a further four years of 'apprenticed labour' wherein "such person shall be entitled to the services of such apprenticed labourer as would for the time being have been entitled to his services as a Slave if this Act had not been passed". Full emancipation was finally granted to all former slaves on August 1st 1838. |
October
27:
Independence Day
St. Vincent & the Grenadines
achieved its independence from Great Britain in 1979.
The state remains a part of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
December 25: Christmas Day
December 26: Boxing Day