"" Writer's Wanderings: A Caribbean Christmas - St. Lucia

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A Caribbean Christmas - St. Lucia

The majority of folks on St. Lucia whose historical roots are French and British are Roman Catholic and celebrate Christmas in a big way. There is midnight mass, singing of carols, great parties and of course, lots of food.

One of the more unusual practices is called "bursting the bamboo." From November 30 and continuing until Christmas, you can hear the sound of exploding bamboo during the night. Men use kerosene, rags, and sticks as fuses to make cannons out of large pieces of hollowed out bamboo. Apparently this activity is not confine to just men as I found a posted video of boys bursting the bamboo on the playground. It never does go off in the video but can you imagine this activity on a playground near you?


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