The Junkanoo Festival in Nassau, Bahamas

Lorraine McKiniry: I’ve heard you get a true taste of Bohemian culture, you have to check out Junkanoo. Arlene Nash Ferguson: This is what you would call an off the beaten track behind the scenes. So true Bohemian experience, 90% of the visitors who come through here have never heard the word Junkanoo before. It’s a strange word for our supreme festival. It’s the national culture of Festival of the Bahamas traditionally celebrated at Christmas time. We have two for eves, one Christmas night and one New Year’s morning. And so, it’s a big party and we need you to be there to dance down the street. Lorraine McKiniry: Oh, I’d love to. Arlene Nash Ferguson: It’s been documented in the Bahamas for over 200 years and in a nut shell under—slaves were given three days holiday at Christmas time. And in the Bahamas, they did something very special. The stall of the undercover of knight to reclaim their humanness by recreating the African festivals and so over the years, this has come to be a wonderful celebration of life, of the strength of the people of the Bahamas, they told their children never to forget. Lorraine McKiniry: I can’t believe how detailed the costumes are. Arlene Nash Ferguson: Very much so. Very much so. Lorraine McKiniry: It’s very labor intensive this process. Arlene Nash Ferguson: Very labor intensive in the African tradition of the layering of costumes. So, you never just put it on. You put it on in layers. And this is great paper that’s put on to cardboard. And it’s put on one tiny strip at a time. So, we are already working on the costumes for this Christmas. It goes on the entire year. Lorraine McKiniry: Oh my goodness! Arlene Nash Ferguson: This room is dedicated to Wood Junk and they look alike in the first top of the last century. And allow me to introduce you to Sponge Bahama Bob. And in the first time of it—it grows on the ocean floor in the Bahamas within the days of indigenous costumes, Sponge was quite a popular material to make costumes slot. And the progress, you have—newspapers then you couldn’t find anything else, tissue paper was very popular in the first half of the 20th century. Notice the colonial colors. And then we move to crepe paper in the 1950’s so that’s what we’re using today. Children come from local schools. And they come to do a Junkanoo workshop. And I teach them about the history and the heritage and national pride. Lorraine McKiniry: So, this festival is actually is a part of everyday life here. Arlene Nash Ferguson: It’s a part of our lives. Junkanoo is in the soul of Bohemians.