Caribbean culture is a unique, vibrant mixture of Indian, Spanish, African and American traditions. Almost all the states of the Caribbean hold holidays and festivals, days of national culture, but the most ambitious of them is annually held on the Island of Freedom, Cuba, in early July.
Celebrated the holiday of Caribbean culture in Cuba since 1981. This festival is becoming a significant event in the cultural life of not only Cubans, but also the rest of the region. It is held in the city of Santiago de Cuba, located in the eastern part of the island and lasts a whole week.
Every year the festival is held under the sign of one of the countries of the Caribbean coast and numerous guests from different countries of the world come to it. The variety of national cultural traditions is represented in music, dance, poetry. Within the framework of the festival, you can see theatrical performances and performances with a religious content. Here you can get acquainted with all the variety of religious cults and movements that the inhabitants of the Caribbean adhere to: voodoo, palo, santeria and their varieties.
During the festival, which is also called the "Festival of Fire", Cubans and guests of the island can take part or simply watch performances of art and folk groups, carnival processions and religious ceremonies, open-air concerts. Poetry meetings and musical evenings await them. Usually representatives of almost 20 countries come here, the number of artists exceeds a thousand people.
The organizer of the festival is the research organization "Caribbean House", which sets as its main task the preservation of the cultural traditions of the Caribbean countries and their popularization throughout the world. "Caribbean House" annually determines the theme of the holiday.
The celebrations are opened with a gala concert that takes place on the stage of the Heredia Theater. Viewers can then visit numerous exhibitions of painting, sculpture and folk art. In the center of Santiago de Cuba, representations of the countries to which the festival is dedicated this year are opening.
The part of the festival related to religious rites takes place in the form of mass ceremonies and processions dedicated to a particular deity. Theatrical performance with acts of ritual magic ceremonies is traditionally held in the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin, located in the small town of Cobre near Santiago de Cuba.
The festival ends with the "Parade of Fire", which is attended by all the artists who performed at the festival, and the enchanting ceremony "The Burning of the Devil". During it, a gigantic figure of Satan, made of branches and plants, is burned. This tradition, which symbolizes purification by fire, is part of the voodoo cult.
