Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine October 2018 | Page 572

Bursting the Bamboo
When the Christmas season approaches on St. Lucia, residents on the island
cringe in anticipation of the inevitable explosive sounds that are bound to
pierce the air, sporadically, without warning. Pause. The day continues.... then
there it goes, again!
These will be the sound of bursting bamboo, a tradition that has been carried
on in St. Lucia for centuries, starting each year from early November until
the end of December. It is a competition of sorts where groups try to outdo
each other to see whose bamboo can generate the loudest explosion. It is,
effectively, a crude firecracker, welcoming the start of the Christmas season and
a tradition which primarily the younger men in the villages are holding on to in
an attempt to keep that tradition alive.
Green bamboos are cut, cleaned and filled with rags on which kerosene is
poured then lighted - boom! Admittedly, some islanders do find this to be a
dangerous nuisance, but notwithstanding, many consider this activity to be
synonymous with the entire package that comprises the St. Lucia Christmas
season.