Jounen Kwéyòl

In St. Lucia the last Sunday in October is Jounen Kwéyòl, a international celebration of all things Creole and we got to join the party!

As to the origins of Jounen Kwéyòl:

"At a meeting of the international organization of Creole speaking countries, Bannzil Kwéyòl, in

Louisiana, U.S.A. in 1983, it was decided to observe an International Creole Day (Jounen

Kwéyòl) annually on October 28th. Countries involved in this decision included Cayenne,

Dominica, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles and St. Lucia." 

The purpose is to preserve Creole customs, languages and traditions.

Here in St. Lucia, Jounen Kwéyòl is celebrated all over the island. Some districts have designated areas for the community to come together to celebrate. Our hostess and guide for the day, Aretha, took us to one of these community celebrations in Monchy.

 
We got there early specifically so we would not get into the huge crowds that showed up as the day went on because we had more parts of the island we wanted to visit.

Like all good festivals Jounen Kwéyòl celebrates music and dance, like these women dancing to Creole music:

food:

and of course drink

But it's not just these designated sites. Every little roadside place, which are normally closed on Sundays, have pots and grills of food to sell and music - Creole music mostly - blasting. I can't begin to tell you how many of these roadside parties we passed in our travel down the Atlantic (eastern) side of the island.

On our way back north in the late afternoon, we passed by the same where we stopped in the morning. There cars were parked a mile or more from the main festival site. There were so many cars and so many people the main road was nearly blocked.

It was a fabulous fun day. I would love to come back and spend a more time and stop at many more of the little roadside places. What a great celebration! Even if I didn't understand a lot of what was said in Kwéyòl. But then I'm used to that.