Daneekah+Viajar

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On this site You will learn interesting facts about the beautiful belize. like: A) General information B) The Climate C) Famous attractions to visit D) Holidays E) Popular Music From Belize

 ENJOY!!!!!!!

__Part 1:General Information__ []

Belize is the second smallest country in Central America. The most sparsely populated country in Central America with 230,000 people(1997 est.). The capital of Belize is Belmopan,35 miles island from Belize city. 70% of Belize is still covered by forest. English is the official language & is exclusively in instruction in schools.





PART 2: __CLIMATE__  [|Climate] There is a dry season and a rainy season in Belize. The Belize city is warm all around. In the dry season the temparatures are 72 ° degrees and up to 88 ° degrees in the rainy season. If you go to Mountain Pine Ridge, the average low temperature drops to a cool 63°(F) in December PART 3: FAMOUS ATTRACTION TO VISIT [|More Famous Attractions]

__BELIZE CITY

__

You will find a congenial atmosphere at clubs and restaurants with tasty foods,easy conversation and tropical-style entertainment. There are cinemas in town. Village fiestas are frequent.

Holidays Celebrated In Belize


 * New Year's Day || January 1 ||
 * Baron Bliss Day || March 9 ||
 * Good Friday || March or April ||
 * Holy Saturday || March or April ||
 * Easter Sunday || March or April ||
 * Easter Monday || March or April ||
 * Labour Day || May 1 ||
 * Commonwealth Day || May 24 ||
 * St. George's Caye Day || September 10 ||
 * National Independence Day || September 21 ||
 * Columbus Day || October 12 ||
 * Garifuna Day || November 19 ||
 * Christmas Day || December 25 ||
 * Boxing Day || December 26 ||

****
Exciting yearly event celebrated nationwide which brings back traditions. Groups compete in comparsas (special dances). Held one week before Lent. Prize of $50,000 to angler landing blue marlin over 500 pounds. Sponsored by the Belize Game Fish Association. Ambergris Caye. Slowly evolving from slapstick fun using powder, flour, lipstick and paint to tease people, to a more traditional Mestizo carnival made up of competing comparsas. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Fiesta de Carnaval**
 * International Bullfish Tournament**
 * San Pedro Carnival**

Held in Belmopan, Orange Walk Town and nearby Chan Pine Ridge every two years. Livestock, handicrafts, traditional costumes and dances. Celebrations held nationwide to honor this great benefactor of Belize. Harbor regatta is held in front of the lighthouse where he was buried. Horse and cycle races are also held. Held in Belmopan at the National Agricultural Showgrounds every other year, the last weekend in March. Features rodeo. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Annual Agricultural & Trade Show**
 * Baron Bliss Day**
 * Trade & Livestock Show**

Special Catholic Church services. Beginning at 3p.m. most villagers participate in procession carrying the cross through town. Bicycle race in Belize City, continues on Western Highway, Circles around park in San Ignacio and returns to a dramatic finale in Belize City. International participation. Local fair celebrating the day of their patron saint. Entertainment for kids, rides, food, marimba music. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Good Friday in Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker**
 * Holy Saturday Cross Country Classic**
 * San Jose Succotz Fiesta**

Crooked Tree Village. Celebrating the cashew harvest season. Live punt music, cashew wine, Caribbean-style dishes, games, folklore stories. San Ignacio. Displays of local crafts and products. Sample local foods. Caye Caulker. Food, beverages, crafts. Parade with prize for floats, coconut competition, dancing. Celebrated nationwide as the Queen's birthday. National Sports Council holds horse races in Belize City at the National Stadium and in Orange Walk Town at the People's Stadium. Cycle races are held between Cayo and Belmopan. Address by the Minister of Labour or a representative, followed by parades and rallies held throughout the country. Kite contest, cycle race, harbor regatta, horse race. Week-long festivals in which school children depict various cultural groups in the district through drama and music. Arts and crafts exhibition includes basketry, paintings, clay sculpture, seashells and calabash vessels. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Cashew Festival**
 * Cayo Expo**
 * Coconut Festival**
 * Commonwealth Day**
 * Labour Day**
 * Toledo Festival of Arts**

Three-day festival honoring St. Peter, the patron saint of San Pedro. Early morning boat parade. Boats and fishermen are blessed, a special mass is held and and a fiesta/jump-up follows. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Dia de San Pedro**

Local fair. Celebrates the day of their patron saint with cultural shows, marimba bands, food and games. Nine days of prayer. Belize's first trade show. Theme is "The Ecological Destination of the 21st Century. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Benque Viejo del Carmen Fiesta**
 * BETEX 96 (Belize Tourism Expo)**

San Antonio, Toledo District Week-long celebrations. Historical reenactments, costumes, homemade harps and violins. San Pedro. A festival of music, dance, and foods from Belize, Mexico and neighboring countries. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Deer Dance Festival**
 * International Sea & Air Festival**

Numerous cultural, religious and sporting activities held a couple of weeks before St. George's Caye Day. Flag-raising ceremonies, parades, street jump-ups, music, dance and foods. Crowning of Miss San Pedro. Orange Walk and Corozal towns people cross over into Mexico to reunite with families and have celebrations. Celebrates and commemorates a battle in 1798 when the Spanish were defeated by slaves, Baymen and British soldiers. Around the country similar official ceremonies and parades take place. Carnivals, sporting activities, fire engine parade, and pop concerts held several days prior to this event. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Independence Day**
 * Mexican National Day**
 * St. George's Caye Day**

Billfish tournament with spectacular prizes. Sponsored by the Belize Game Fish Association. Regatta racing in Belize City. Hike & Bike for the Rain Forest A two-day cross-country run and mountain bike race. Local and International athletes will compete throughout the Cayo area for the benefit of the rain forest. Orange Walk and Corozal. Fiestas and beauty contest to celebrate Mestizo culture. Horse and cycle races. Tourism Week: Activities include silent and Dutch auction, grand vacation raffle drawing and fair. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Belikin Spectacular**
 * Columbus Day (Pan American Day)**
 * Pan American Day**

Festival, mainly in the southern most areas of the country to mark the first arrival of the Garifuna in 1832 in Dangriga. Exhibits of livestock and locally grown fruits and vegetables. [|February] | [|March] | [|April] | [|May] | [|June] | [|July] | [|August] | [|September] | [|October] | [|November] | [|December]
 * Garifuna Settlement Day**
 * Stann Creek Agricultural Fair**

Parties, dances, horse races and some Garifuna dances are performed.
 * Boxing Day**









 __Belize Music__

is a small country in [|Central America], and its [|culture] is a mix of [|Kriol], [|Mestizo], [|Garifuna], and [|Maya] influences. After many centuries of Maya habitation, Spanish and then British colonizers arrived in the area, the latter keeping Belize as its only colony in Spanish-dominated Central America. Far more influentially than either European power's arrival, however, was the importation of African slaves. hide] * [|1] [|European and African influences] 
 * ==Contents==
 * [|2] [|Mestizo music]
 * [|3] [|Kriol Music]
 * [|4] [|Garifuna music]
 * [|5] [|Modern music]
 * [|6] [|References]
 * [|7] [|External links] ||

[[|edit]] European and African influences
Europeans brought [|polkas], [|waltzes], [|schottisches] and [|quadrilles], while Africans brought numerous instruments and percussion-based musics, including [|marimba]. African culture resulted in the creation of [|brukdown] music in interior logging camps, played using [|banjo], [|guitar], [|drums], [|dingaling] [|bell], [|accordion] and an [|ass]'s [|jaw][|bone] played by running a stick up and down the teeth. 

[[|edit]] Mestizo music
Mestizo culture in north and west Belize, and also [|Guatemala], is characterised by [|marimba], a [|xylophone]-like instrument descended from an African [|instrument]. Marimba bands use [|trap drums], [|double bass] and sometimes other instruments. Famous performers include [|Alma Belicena] and the [|Los Angeles Marimba Band]. 

[[|edit]] Kriol Music
Main article: [|Brukdown] Among the most popular style's created by [|Kriol] musicians is [|brukdown]. [|Brukdown] evolved out of the music and dance of loggers, especially a form called [|buru]. Buru was often satirical in nature, and eventually grew more urban, accompanied by a donkey's jawbone, [|drums] and a [|banjo]. The word //brukdown// may come from //broken down calypso//, referring to the similarities between brukdown and [|Trinidadian] [|calypso music]; the presence of large numbers of [|Jamaicans] in Belize also led to an influence from [|mento] music. In modern forms, new instruments have been added to brukdown. The "[|boom and chime] groups" use [|bass guitar], [|electric guitar] and [|congas], for example. Popular brukdown groups include The Tigers, [|The Mahogany Chips], [|Mimi Female Duet] and [|Brad Pattico] [|[1]]. Brukdown remains a rural, rarely recorded genre. marleny 
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Leela_Vernon_Mr._Peters_and_band_performing.jpg/120px-Leela_Vernon_Mr._Peters_and_band_performing.jpg width="120" height="90" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leela_Vernon_Mr._Peters_and_band_performing.jpg"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Mr._Peters_and_his_accordion.jpg/120px-Mr._Peters_and_his_accordion.jpg width="120" height="90" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mr._Peters_and_his_accordion.jpg"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Mr._P_and_Leela_Vernon.jpg/90px-Mr._P_and_Leela_Vernon.jpg width="90" height="120" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mr._P_and_Leela_Vernon.jpg"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Drum_beat.jpg/120px-Drum_beat.jpg width="120" height="90" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drum_beat.jpg"]] ||

[[|edit]] Garifuna music
Main article: [|Garifuna music] The [|Garifuna] (also called Garinagu) are descended from escaped [|Island Caribs] who were deported from [|St. Vincent] to Central America (especially [|Honduras] and also [|Belize]) in 1802) by the [|British] when they conquered St. Vincent. The Garifunas kept themselves apart from the social system then dominant, leading to a distinctive culture that developed throughout the 20th century. Forms of Garifuna folk music and dance encompass many styles including: punta, hungu-hungu, combination, wanaragua, abaimahani, matamuerte, laremuna wadaguman, gunjai, charikanari, sambai, charikanari, eremuna egi, paranda, berusu, punta rock, teremuna ligilisi, arumahani, and Mali-amalihani. [|Punta] and [|Punta rock] are the most popular dance in Garifuna culture. It is performed around holiday's and at parties, and other social events. Punta lyrics are usually composed by the women. [|Chumba] and [|hunguhungu] are a circular dance in a three beat rhythm, which is often combined with punta. There are other songs typical to each gender, women having [|eremwu eu] and [|abaimajani], rhythmic [|a cappella] songs, and [|laremuna wadaguman], men's [|work songs]. Drums play a very important role in Garifuna music. There are primarily two types of drums used: 1. The Primero (tenor drum) 2. The Segunda (bass drum) These drums are typically made of hollowed out hardwood such as mahogany or mayflower. With the skins coming from the peccary (wild bush pig), deer, or sheep. Also used in combination with the drums are the sisera. These shakers are made from the dried fruit of the gourd tree, filled with seeds, then fitted with hardwood handles. In contemporary Belize there has been a resurgence of Garifuna music, popularized by musicians such as Andy Palacio, Mohobub Flores, & Adrian Martinez. These musicians have taken many aspects from traditional Garifuna music forms and fused them with more modern sounds. Described as a mixture of punta rock and paranda. One great example is Andy Palacio's album "Watina," released on the Belizean record label "Stone Tree Records." 

[[|edit]] Modern music
Belize's musical base has expanded considerably in recent years with the addition of local [|reggae], [|Hip Hop] and [|jazz] stars. Belize counts among its local reggae stars Dan Marcus I and [|Dan Man], as well as other groups such as Belizean Entertainment [|Official Site]; various hip-hop groups often open for more accomplished international stars at local concerts, and there has even been a jazz revival, with an annual jazz festival and at least three popular jazz music programs on local radio. This surge in local music can be attributed in some ways to the international popularity of such television stations as [|BET] and [|MTV], which present hip-hop as something to aspire to and admire. In addition, there has been a concerted effort to promote local music among the Belizean population, who have almost never been trained to favor their own music above others

