Shak Shak Tree
Here’s a photo of the Flamboyant tree or Royal Poinciana ablaze with colourful flowers on Provo. I mentioned in a previous post that the Junkanoo band often has many percussion instruments that include the shak-shak. This instrument is like a maracas and at one time, the seed pods of the Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant tree were used as a shak-shak in the Turks and Caicos Islands. I thought this was interesting as I didn’t know what a shak-shak was.
Marta
Junkanoo drummer beats out an island rhythm
Junkanoo parade in the Turks and Caicos Islands
We made it to midnight and watched the fireworks from our deck. We had to get up at five to take guests to the airport for the early Miami flight. The downtown traffic circle was blocked off by police as the New Year’s festivities and junkanoo on Provo were just winding down. At the same time that we are going to bed, our island friends are heading out in the wee hours of New Year’s Day to celebrate and party till the morning. The junkanoo parade is the highlight of the festivities… full of people in colourful costumes dancing to up tempo combinations of goatskin drums, cowbells, horns, shak shak (see post) and other instruments. You can’t help but join in as the performers go through some wild, uninhibited and hypnotic dancing as they bang on drums and move to the island rhythms. The term “rush” is given to this all-out, no holds barred form of dancing in the streets and everyone joins in (“jump up”). We wish everyone all the best in 2009.
Marta
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