Junkanoo is a street parade with music, dance, and costumes of Akan origin in many towns across the Bahamas every Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year's Day (January 1), the same as Kakamotobi or the Fancy Dress Festival. The largest Junkanoo parade happens in the capital New Providence. In addition to being a culture dance for the Garifuna people, this type of dancing is also performed in The Bahamas on Independence day and other historical holidays. Dances are choreographed to the beat of goatskin drums and cowbells.
The origin of the word junkanoo is disputed, but the most likely theory is the one that it is named after a folk hero named John Canoe, who was in fact an king that ruled Axim, Ghana before 1720, the same year in which the festival was created in the Caribbean. The most popular belief, however, is that it developed from the days of slavery. The influx of Loyalists in the late 18th Century brought many enslaved people who were given three days off at Christmas, which they celebrated by singing and dancing in colourful masks, travelling from house to house, often on stilts.
Long before the spectacular 'rush-out', the exuberant Junkanoo dance troupes - groups of up to 1,000 - will have been busy rehearsing their dazzling routines. The musicians will have perfected the hypnotic rhythms they'll perform day and night on a cacophony of goatskin drums, cowbells, whistles and horns, and the imaginative costume designers will have worked non-stop to weave their own special magic with beautifully coloured crepe paper and cardboard.
About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, designed by Andrew Robinson and issued on August 10 2016.
References
Junkanoo - Wikipedia
What is Junkanoo - Bahamas.co.uk
Sender: Humba Bisaya (direct swap)
Sent from Nassau (Bahamas), on 02.03.2017
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