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Haiti
By Bernadette Ballasty, SSND
The month of May is a celebration of Haiti Heritage, proposed to raise awareness of Haitian culture and traditions as well as to celebrate Haitian contributions across the world. This month is observed in the Haitian diaspora as well as in Haiti. In the United States, it was first celebrated in Boston, Massachusetts in 1998. The month-long celebration includes activities such as parades, flag raising, conferences, book fairs, festivals, and exhibits. In 2001, the Haitian community of Palm Beach County, Florida started the Heritage celebration and contributed greatly to make the month of May a statewide celebration. President George W. Bush and his wife Laura sent a letter in May 2005 to congratulate the Haitian American community for the heritage month and organized a celebration in the White House that same year.
Since 1998 several states through their governors and members of the state legislatures and officials on a local level have issued citations or proclamations recognizing the Haitian Heritage Month in their states or cities. In recent years, many states along the Atlantic coast as well as Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania have initiated such observances.
Haitian Flag Day – May 18
Haiti’s current flag is a bicolor horizontal flag, blue and red with a white rectangle in the center featuring a coat of arms. The coat of arms includes a hilltop, weaponry and a palm tree. A white ribbon on the hillside says “L’Union Fait la Force” or “Unity Is Strength.”
It is said that Jacques Dessalines used the blue and red of the French flag for inspiration for the first Haitian flag. According to local history, the blue symbolized the Haitian African residents and the red represented those of mixed European and African descent. Dessalines uses of the flag is thought to have taken place on May 18, 1803, now celebrated as Haitian Flag Day. Catherine Flon, Dessalines’ goddaughter, was said to have sewn the two pieces of the French flag together in a city known as Arcahaie. Bearing this newly created flag with pride, the Haitians fought and expelled the French army and became the first black independent country in the world on January 1, 1804. Some other accounts say that Dessalines chose the colors based on religious undertones from the Vodum religion.
Through the years, various rulers have changed the flag substituting black and red for the blue and red and back again. In addition, the motto on the flag has been modified. Other mottos have included “Unity makes Strength”, Our Unity Will Be Our Strength”, and “Freedom or Death”. The latter was adopted from the French Revolution and was likely on the original flag created by Dessalines.
When Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) was president in 1964, the colors of the flag were again changed to black and red. These colors continued until 1986 when Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) was overthrown and went into exile. It was during this time that the original colors of blue and red were restored back to the flag.
Click here for more notable dates in Haitian history, and to read more about the work our province is doing in Haiti with our partner, Beyond Borders.
