16th October, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Jimmy Clavier
Phone: (758) 457-9021
Email: jimmyclavier@cdfstlucia.org
Website: www.cdfstlucia.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cultural.Development.Foundation
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CDFSaintLucia
La Magwit Blooms Forward! Viv La Magwit!
The celebrations for Creole Heritage month continue tomorrow with Fèt La Magwit -Viv La Magwit! Fèt La Magwit or the La Magwit Flower Festival is an annual festival celebrated every October 17th with much pomp and flare. This festival reflects the history, traditions and values of Saint Lucians lasting over a month long and flourishes through community spirit involvement.
As the La Magwit Flower Festival evolves, new activities serve as opportunities to enrich the Saint Lucian spirit. They infuse the festival with dynamism, perspective and character as well as the unique traditions of each group or individual that makes itself or himself/herself a part of it. Collectively, they animate the Festival: giving it color, spice, substance, character, in fact, an identity that reflects the richness of Saint Lucia’s own culture. Moreover, the flourishing of the community spirit is the most eloquent testimony that the Festival has found a home in the hearts and minds of the people of Saint Lucia.
Recognizing the people’s commitment to making the Festival a cherished tradition, the Cultural Development Foundation in collaboration with the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre and Events Company of Saint Lucia have been working assiduously to present the Festival this year as a means to safeguard the identity of the Festival and preserve its life force, its soul… the Saint Lucian Spirit.
The main activities for the La Magwit Flower Festival are the community séances, the Gwan Séance, The Gwan Fet and the Schools’ Ecumenical Service. The Gwan Séance signifies the beginning of the celebration of the month-long Festival and it also serves as the venue for the groups to hold an all night singing and dancing session. The séances are the lead up to the grand feast day or Gwan Fèt and the Schools’ Ecumenical Service.
This year, the Gwan Fèt takes us to the community of Mon Repos, where eight (8) participating groups will in brilliant fashion parade the main community streets to the Church of St. Anne where a church service will take place from 10:00 a.m., after which they will make dramatic presentations all in admiration and honour of the symbolic marguerite flower on the grounds of the Mon Repos R.C Combined.
Schools from the northern districts in Saint Lucia have been invited to participate in this year’s Fèt La Magwit with a Ecumenical Service at the Church of Our Lady of Fatima in La Clery, Castries, whilst schools in the southern districts are encouraged to participate in the service and celebrations in Mon Repos.
The Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) is hopeful that the objectives of creating greater public awareness of the festival in terms of its history, purpose and the elements that make up the festival as well as encouraging greater private sector participation in the festival will be met. The CDF urges the public to come out in large numbers to experience a spectacular celebration of Saint Lucian tradition. Viv La Magwit!
ENDS