A guide to traveling the world featuring information on embassies, business, societies, culture, food, education, and much more.
Jan 1st and 2nd - Independence Day celebrates Haiti's independence from French rule in 1804. Haitians celebrate with parades, concerts, and colorfully dressed bands. Confetti in the colors of the Haitian flag, red, blue, green, and white, is used, and the celebration culminates in fireworks and night-long dancing. Pumpkin soup is traditionally eaten, because Black Haitians were not allowed to eat it under French rule. The Next day, Ancestors Day, celebrates the people who fought for independence.
February or March, depending on Christian calendar - The three days preceding Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent. The main festival is in Port-au-Prince, and is celebrated with parades, singing, and dancing, with people wearing colorful costumes. Mardi Gras is also a time of political protest, with several demonstrations held throughout the city.
February or March, depending on Christian calendar - Ash Wednesday is a solemn day or repentance that marks the first day of the 40-day season of Lent leading up to Easter. Ash represents mourning, and is used by priests to mark the foreheads of worshippers in the shape of a cross.
Celebrated on the weekends during Lent and Easter - Initiated by traveling Voudon societies, Rara bands celebrate with music, dancing, and costumes to show the strength of the Voudon congregations. The costumes represent the strength of their Iwa, a Voudon spirit.
Varies depending on Christian calendar - Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus, and the following Sunday is Easter. Easter is celebrated with family, attending Mass and feasting. Voudon rituals usually happen at the same time, because enslaved people had to hide their religions from slave masters. Many Voudon followers pilgrimage to Souvenance during the Easter weekend.
November 1st and 2nd - All-Saints' Day is a Christian holiday celebrating all the saints, known and unknown. Blended Christian and Voudon rituals take place in mausoleums and graveyards, where people clean the gravesites of their dead family members, and burn white and yellow candles, decorate the site with marigolds and zinnias, and leave offerings of food and alcohol. People dressed as the Gede, spirits of life and death, walk around singing bawdy songs and propositioning people at the graveyard. Vendors usually set up near graveyards to sell food, flowers, and candles. Voudon priests may hold rituals to communicate with the dead. On All Souls Day, the following day, the souls of all people who are in Purgatory return to eat and drink with their families. People celebrate All Souls Day by remembering dead family members and putting out offerings for them.
November 18th - Sometimes called Armed Forces Day, the Battle of Vertieres Day celebrated the last major battle of the Second Haitian War of Independence in 1803. The Haitian Army celebrates with parades and a special program from the Haitian President. It is frequently also a day of political protest, with demonstrations led by activists against political repression.
December 25th - Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. Haitian children celebrate by putting shoes filled with straw on the front porch under the Christmas tree, and Papa Noel replaces the straw with presents. Haitians attend Midnigh Mass, then return home to eat "the meals of the reveillon" from the French "to wake up." There are frequently fireworks that last most of the night.
Haitian cuisine is Caribbean in most respects, with French influence. Where the island had once supported large sugar plantations, much of the land now has poor soil. Most rural people practice subsistence agriculture on scattered small plots.
The majority of Haiti’s population are descendants of African slaves. Traditional African cooking methods for sweet potatoes and cassava are still practiced by rural people. Rice and beans, usually paired, are the most common foods in urban Haiti. In the country sweet potatoes, cassava, yams, corn, pigeon peas, and cowpeas are staples.
Fruits, especially mangoes, breadfruit, pineapples, and citrus, are common and mostly eaten as snacks and desserts. Plantains—a delicious, starchy banana-like food eaten throughout the Caribbean and Latin America—are commonly found on Haitian plates. Avocados—a nutritious superfood—are abundant and often used in lettuce salads.
Soups and rice dishes make up the largest part of almost every Haitian’s diet. Meat is generally eaten in small quantities and often only on special occasions. The native people of Haiti (the Arawak people of pre-Columbian Hispanola) prepared barabicu or baracoa, cooking a whole animal on a frame of sticks over an open fire. It is the direct predecessor to today’s barbecue.
Christianity is the dominant religion of Haiti. Roman Catholics comprise about half of the population, with small numbers of Baptists, Pentecostals, Adventists, and Methodists. The minority religions of Haiti include Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Church of Latter-Day Saints, Episcopalians, Jews, Rastafarians, and Baha’i. Nearly 10 percent of the population reportedly follows no religion.
Practitioners of Vodou who regard it as their primary religion represent a small percentage of the population, although nearly half the population practices the religion along with Christianity.
Haitian values are traditional and conservative. Greetings reflect the good manners which are of utmost importance in the culture.
Haitians exchange greetings upon entering any public place. Both French and Haitian Creole—a language based on French with West African and Spanish influences—are national languages in Haiti, although the vast majority of the country speaks only Creole. Most social interactions, especially among the poorer classes, are in Creole, while conversations between more educated businesspeople and government officials tends to take place in French.
Because good manners are important in Haiti, Haitians tend to use formal, polite greetings with anyone they do not know well. Formal greetings typically involve a handshake and direct eye contact for both men and women. Children are taught from a young age to respect their elders and to formally greet visitors to their homes. Elders are always greeted first, as are one’s hosts when entering a person’s home.
