Diaspora Homecoming

SEPTEMBER CELEBRATIONS CALENDAR OFFICIALLY PRESENTED 1 September 2011 No Comment Belize will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its Independence this month and the National Celebrations Commission along with other partners are planning on celebrating the occasion with added flare. Activities began today with the launch of the 2011 September Celebrations calendar of events. Co-Chair of the National Celebrations Commission, Diane Haylock highlights some of the main activities planned for this year. Diane Haylock – Co-chair National Celebrations Commission “We felt that we needed to do more than simply just have the parties and the celebratory kind of events and also infuse in it some discourse, some reflections on what these 30 years of Independence have meant to us as a people and as a nation. We also realize that everything could not be done in the month of September so we started the celebrations early by having this launch today and between now and December there is at least one activity happening each month. One of the activities we are hoping that we will be able to realize is the hosting of a forum of our four Prime Ministers. The requests have been made but we don’t have confirmation as yet about their participation. They have their own reflections and views about what these 30 years have meant so it is an opportunity for them to share their own thoughts and ideas about it and do some projections about what they would like to see happen in the next 30 years if you will. We are going to be doing a lot of the usual things and making these things bigger and better so for instance like with carnival, we’ve increased the prizes for carnival in a big way. With carnival we are looking at getting bands to participate not just from Belize City. A new thing we are doing this year is the Belize sculpture symposium and the Belize sculpture symposium will take place November 12 to December 10 and basically what it means is that we will have six to eight sculptors who will basically be making huge public art size sculptures and these will be placed in different locations in the country.” For the third year Independence Day will be celebrated in the capital, Belmopan where a song composed by Frankie Reneau titled “The Hymn for Belize”. The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Honoring our History, Celebrating our Culture, Uniting for Peace.” See also: Mark Your Calendar For A Belize Birthday Bash Home Sweet Belizean Home for the Holidays