Bahamas – Place

The Bahamas is a country in the Caribbean, unique to its own culture and traditions. This means that their food, among other things, is very different than ours. One example of their food is souse. Souse is a famous dish in the Bahamas, and is a stew. Some ingredients in this dish include carrots, lime juice, peppers, potatoes, bay leaves, onions, and meat varying from sheep tongue to pigs feet.

Another popular Bahamian dish is called baked crab. Extremely common for locals, this simple meal consists of crab combined with bread crumbs, seasoning, egg, and all of that baked in the crab’s original shell.

Pigeon peas and rice is also a popular side in the Bahamas. It’s commonly made from pigeon peas (bean from the Caribbean and Latin America), rice, thyme (evergreen herb), celery, and tomatoes.

Image result for souse bahamas (Souse) Image result for baked crab bahamas (Baked crab) Image result for pigeon peas and rice bahamas (Pigeon peas and rice)

 

Although the Bahamas doesn’t have an official religion, the country’s most dominant is Christianity, like most of the rest of the Caribbean region. However, Christianity is split into many different groups and there are many variations of Christianity in the Bahamas. Baptists are about 32% of the population, Anglicans are 20%, Roman Catholics are 19%, Methodists are 6%, Church of God is 6%, other Protestant religions are 12%, unknown or none is 3%, and other is 2%. The graph below shows similar percentages.

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Knowing that the Bahamas, along with most of the Caribbean, is some division of Christianity, many holidays and or festivals and Christian. One example of this is Good Friday, which is the Friday before Easter Sunday. This holiday is the first day of a weekend that marks the end of the Lenten season, and a day which most Bahamians attend church and serve fish as their main meal for the day.

Image result for bahamas good friday (Good Friday)

Speaking of Fridays, the first Friday of June is Randol Fawkes Labor Day. It was established by Sir Randol Fawkes in 1961, and was named in his honor. This holiday includes a large parade made up of members of labor unions from different organizations and political parties. These people proudly march down the streets of downtown Nassau in colorful uniforms beginning at ten in the morning. Local bands provide music for both the marchers and spectators. The parade ends at the Southern Recreation Grounds, where different people deliver various speeches.

Like most countries that celebrate freedom, the Bahamas has a holiday celebrating their independence day. The country gained full independence from the United Kingdom in 1973, but remains a member of The Commonwealth of Nations. It is celebrated on July tenth.

Image result for bahamas independence day (Independence day)

 

The official language of the Bahamas is English. However, like many other countries, that is not their only language. A slight variation of this language is called Bahamian English, influenced by African and island dialect. In Bahamian English, the “h” in words are usually dropped, and so “house”, might sound like “ouse”. Other than that, about 25% of Bahamians speak Haitian Creole. It’s a creole language created in Haiti, a French colony, during the 17th and 18th centuries. Emerging during the Atlantic slave trade, it was influenced  by a whole mix of other languages including English, West African languages, Spanish, and Portuguese.

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The Bahamas, like much of the Caribbean, relies quite a bit on tourism. That means the Bahamas has many different landmarks, both natural and manmade. One example of a manmade landmark is Fort Fincastle. It’s located on the northeast end of the Bahamian island New Providence, and is a popular tourist spot, being near Junkanoo Expo, Bahamas Historical Society, and the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas. Fort Fincastle is a fort made of limestone, built around 1793, and placed so that it could protect the historic town, and also the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau. It was built on top of a hill named Bennet’s Hill.

Image result for Fort Fincastle Bahamas Image result for Fort Fincastle Bahamas

But, as always, not every popular landmark in the Bahamas is manmade. There are many natural landmarks scattered across the islands of the Bahamas, one of them being called The Lone Tree. It might not seem like much, but to the island Harbor Island, its kind of a big deal. The Lone Tree is a piece of drift wood that stands alone on sand. People speculate about how it came to be where it is, and some theories state it simply slid down a hill, while others say it was blown over from another island during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The tree arrived upright and moves during high tides. Some say it was either an almond or pine tree, but no one can be sure.

Image result for the lone tree bahamas Image result for the lone tree bahamas Image result for the lone tree bahamas

 

Sources 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-tips-vacation-ideas/cruise-destinations/bahamas-vacations/traditional-bahamian-cuisine-10-tastes-to-try-on-caribbean-cruises.html

 http://thebahamasguide.com/facts/religion/

https://www.bahamas.com/holidays

https://www.bahamas.com/our-language

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-the-bahamas.html

https://www.bahamas.com/vendor/lone-tree