“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24
This year, the Haiti National Committee has reserved on their calendar February 27, 28 and March 1 as Carnival. I was curious about the Carnival celebration this year given the challenges the country is enduring today, and have learned the following from the internet along with some of the history of this celebration in case you don’t know.
Haitian Carnival is a pre-Lenten carnival celebration that takes place in the lead up to Mardi Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which officially marks the start of Lenten season, a period of fasting that precedes Easter for many Christians.
The official public celebration of carnival in Haiti started in 1804 after its independence from France that was led by a voodoo priest named Boukman, in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince; so it has many years of history, changes, anecdotes and memories. Haitian Christians view this celebration as sinful, as they observed that the members of the celebration performed sexually suggestive dances, had plays full of blasphemy and songs where they mocked the authorities, which is still done to this day.
The Haitian carnival is mainly financed by the government and wealthy Haitian families, as the social-economic conditions of the country do not allow most of the Haitian population to contribute financially to the event.
So far, it is not known whether the carnival of Haiti 2022 will actually be held, as the island is in a significant economic instability caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, which left many informal employees without a livelihood, which abound in Haiti. There are also many shortages of fuel and food which have been caused by a large group of many gangs that have taken over parts of the country with the inability of the government to stop them at the present time. In the coming weeks of Lent, please continue to keep the Christians living in Haiti in your daily prayers.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay