While the world celebrates New Year's Day, Haitians add the celebration of their independence as a nation state on January 1 every year.
Basic Facts
Two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's colonial forces in 1803, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti after its original Arawak name. January 1, 1804 was declared Independence Day. In 1791, a slave revolt erupted on the French colony, and Toussaint-Louverture, a former slave who was himself a slave owner, took control of the rebels. It took 13 years of bloody warfare to secure the country from its former slave masters and from Napoleon's attempt to reconquer and reinstate slavery. The victory not only delivered the country from French control, it also secured freedom from slavery for all Haitians.
Celebrating Freedom and Independence
Soup Joumou (Freedom Soup) is the festive symbol of Haitian nationhood and freedom. It was not allowed for slaves to eat this soup. After slavery was ended and the nation was established, eating the forbidden soup became the essential act of remembrance for Haitians.
- Haitians make Soup Joumou every New Year...
- Haitians eat Soup Joumou every New Year...
- They share Soup Joumou with friends every New Year...
- They do that in order to remember their past, their struggle for FREEDOM, and their ongoing fight to remain free.
What better way to celebrate the New Year than with the very soup that they were not allowed to have as slaves?
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