St.Lucia where members pledge allegiance
to one or the other. These societies have a
King and Queen, prince and princesses,
judges, policemen, magistrate, soldiers and
nurses. Each festival has a singer known as
Every year St.Lucians
the “chantwel” who leads the singing in a
observe two flower festivals call and response pattern. Some of the
— the La Rose festival or
songs involve poking fun or casting ‘mépwi’
at the other rival society. But it’s all in good
LaWoz festival named after the patron
fun. Folks adorn their beautiful floral or
saint Rose of Lima and celebrated on
colorful prints and dance to the Mapa and
August 30th. The La Marguerite festival
Gwan Won and Quadrille to the sweet
is also named after a patron saint — St.
sounds of the violin and banjo and shak-
Marguerite Mary Alacoque and is
shak, guitar and tanbou ( drums).
celebrated on October 17. These two
flower festivals are derived from
Although much isn’t known about the
historical rival societies who sing the
origin of these societies, it is believed that
virtues of their respective flowers. Such
they were born out of slavery.
is the nature of the flower societies in
SAINT LUCIA HAS AN
ANNUAL WAR OF
FLOWERS
10
Source: https://archive.stlucia.gov.lc/saint_lucia/the_flower_festivals_la_rose_and_la_marguerite.htm
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