Dressed as dragons, propping up stilts, and dancing in the streets, thousands of Haitians celebrated the opening of Carnival Sunday (February 19) in the commune of Jacmel. The town is located along the southern Haitian coast that was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew in October.
Jacmel, a tourist town, was also hit hard by the massive earthquake that rocked the Caribbean nation in 2010. Since then, city officials have been striving to rebuild local tourism.
Jacmel has a permanent population of more than 100,000. Haitians flock to the Carnival there.
“The Carnival at Jacmel is the tops in the country. Carnival is throughout the whole country, but here, it takes over. The president is here. Senators, deputees. Only we can do this. The Jacmel Carnival is at the top level,” said one attendee.
Hurricane Matthew killed almost 900 people and left tens of thousands homeless back in October.
Most of the deaths occurred in the Western tip.
Attendees were focused on the celebration.
“For some time, we've been looking forward to this. There are a lot of participants, tourists, excitement. Carnival will be a success.”
In addition to trying to recover from national disasters, Haiti is also hoping to inject some normalcy into its political life.
Jovenel Moise, a successful banana exporter, was sworn in as president this month after a vote that was initially held in 2015 and had to be rerun more than a year later, due to allegations of voter fraud.
With a resolution of Haiti's political crisis, revelers said it took a load off at the celebrations.
“This Carnival is really great, much better than last year. There were political problems. There's been political problems. This year the Carnival is more intense,” said one celebrant.
Carnival in Haiti goes back to 1804 and not even the country's devastating 2010 earthquake was enough to eliminate celebrations.
REUTERS
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