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Posted By: Marty SEPTEMBER CELEBRATIONS CALENDAR PRESENTED - 06/16/11 02:50 AM
Belize will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its Independence this year
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. For example in July the University Singers,
which is an internationally renowned choir, will be coming to Belize and
this activity is under the patronage of the Governor General. 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."


Story at http://www.lovefm.com/ndisplay.php?nid=14105
Posted By: Marty Re: SEPTEMBER CELEBRATIONS CALENDAR PRESENTED - 06/16/11 03:13 PM

September Celebrations Aloft

September is two and a half months away - but planners want to make sure that the thirtieth anniversary of our Independence is celebrated with the proper mix of festiveness and flair.

They held a launching at the house of culture this morning and Monica Bodden found out what's being planned:

Monica Bodden Reporting:

The theme, logo and key events of this year's September Celebrations were launched this morning by the Celebrations Commission. The year marks the 30th anniversary of Belize's Independence and the 213th anniversary of the Battle of St George's Caye.

Diane Haylock- Co Chair, National Celebrations Comm.
"The anniversary of every major event or occasion in the life of an individual or a country is just cause for observation and celebration. And we the people of Belize, have, every September, justly celebrated two significant events in the life of our nation: Saint George's Caye Day on the 10th, and Independence Day on the 21th. And we will once more do so, again this year; however it has also been tradition to pay special attention to those anniversaries every 5 years. Indeed, we see these 5-year periods as milestone years. This year marks the 213th anniversary of the Battle of Saint George's Caye, and more importantly, the 30th anniversary of of Belize's Independence as a Nation State. What does, or should this milestone-year mean for Belize and her people. It is often said that someone 30th birthday, signifies that moment in time when that individual transitions into her prime years. It is the time in life when one would stop, and reflect on who he/she is, where he/she has come from, and more importantly where he or she is going."

And there is a list of events on this year's September calendar.

Greg Vernon - Director, ICA
"The calendar event for September, of course, starts this month of June with the Archaeological Symposium, and it goes into December, where we're hoping that we would be able to add, as we go along, the private sector, the businesses, the promoters, and the producers of shows, that we'll be able to add to the calendar. And so we're working, as much as possible, with the budget that has been provided for us. And so we're looking forward for a good year this celebration. What we're looking forward to this September, of course, is the official ceremonies in September. We start off with the old capital, Saint George's Caye. We move into the second capital, Belize City, for the flag raising, where it was originally done, and then we go to Belmopan for the official ceremonies of the 21th, which Belmopan is now our current capital. We also have, coming along the way, where we'll be looking at the design week, for example, where we'll be looking at the national where competition, which we're very much focused in developed a national where Belizean Identity, that we'll be able to portray what Belize should be. We are also looking, in August, of course every August we do our national song competition, and so with this song competition, we break it down into two areas: the patriotic song and we also have the carnival song competition. Inside, there will have seniors and juniors for categories. We are partnering with the Atlantic International Bank, who have partnered with us, to do this initiative."

This year's celebration theme is "honoring our histories, celebrating our cultures, uniting in peace".

Seleni Matus-Director of Tourism
"The Commission, itself, has spent, I'd say, many hours looking at the entries that we had for basically the logo and the theme for this year. And after pouring for hours over the people's suggestions, recommendation, we are very pleased to announce this morning, the theme for the 2011 September Celebrations. And the theme is "honoring our histories, celebrating our cultures, uniting in peace. This theme really captures our Belizean Identity, our sense of peace, and also the growth of our nation. So we invite all Belizeans, here in Belize and throughout the world, to join us in celebrating this momentous milestone."

Greg Vernon
"This year logo, we had submissions from the country. Of course, every year we make an announcement saying that we'd like logos, and of course, the theme. We look that the designers, and we say which best represents. And out of the whole lot, this one was chosen by the committee. The logo - the theme as explained by Ms. Haylock is one that the committee had to piece together to represent what we would like to say for our 30th anniversary."

Channel 7

Posted By: Marty Re: SEPTEMBER CELEBRATIONS CALENDAR PRESENTED - 06/22/11 02:26 PM

Preparations for September Celebrations Underway

"Honoring Our Culture, Celebrating Our History, Uniting for Peace" Belize will be celebrating 30 years of independence with this theme come the entire month of September. This is when the people of Belize become very festive and gather at public venues to enjoy entertainment and educational performances to honor two very important national holidays in the month of September. These are the Battle of St. George's Caye Day- September 10 and Independence Day- September 21.

There were rumors abound that the Carnival Parade and King/Queen completion were going to be cancelled this year in Belize City, but the Belize National Carnival Commission and the Carnival Band Leads have met to discuss plans for Carnival 2011. It was announced that the Carnival King & Queen will be held on Saturday, August 27 and the Carnival Jouvert, Carnival Road March & Carnival Fete will be held on Saturday, September 3, 2011.

"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," commented Diane Haylock, Co-chair National Celebrations Commission. "�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."

Of course, like every municipality around the country, San Pedro will be celebrating with its own schedule of events come September. The San Pedro Town Council will be announcing the island's celebratory events soon. Stay tunes for the celebrations!

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