I just read an interesting article on about Mother’s Day in Haiti on a site called Caribbean Living. Mother’s Day is celebrated in Haiti on the last Sunday of May.
Laurie Bean wrote in her article, “Haitians celebrate Mother’s Day with songs, tears and prayers in church…”
People dress up in their Sunday best. There’s a long church service and singing. Then people who have lost their Mom’s express their grief in a strong show of emotion called “tonbe crize”. This sometimes includes passing out.
Everyone wears a flower in one of three colors: red, white or purple. Laurie wrote, “…people would wear red Gimov [see photo of the red Hibiscus flower above] if their mothers are alive. They would wear white roses if their mothers recently passed; or lavender if their mother had joined the Ancestors some time ago… Never sit next to a person who wears white roses on mother’s day. It is physically hazardous…”
Please check out Laurie Bean’s article on her site called Caribbean Living to read more about Mother’s Day in Haiti, and check out her site to learn more about Haitian culture in general.
This article was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 11:45 am and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Customs and Traditions, Haiti, Haitian Creole, Holidays Around the World, Languages, Mothers Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.