Cultural Division pushing preps for celebration of Dominica’s Heritage Day in Mahaut on 23rd October

​The Cultural Division is pushing preparations for celebration of Dominica’s Heritage Day in Mahaut on Sunday October 23rd 2016. The event is being undertaken with the support of a local organizing committee, and will take the form of a series of activities all day.
 
For the past few weeks the local organizing committee has been working together with the Chief Cultural Officer and her team in putting together the programme of activities and going over the detailed plan for every aspect of the organizing of this important date on the island’s Independence Celebrations’ calendar of events.
 
Heritage Day heralds the start of the annual Creole Week/Semen Kweyol celebrations in Dominica. Each year, a different village is selected to host the celebrations in order to highlight the island’s unique cultural heritage and rich traditions. The events place the focus on this particular host village, and invites locals and visitors to celebrate and identify with its unique cultural achievements and personalities, and their contributions to the overall preservation of Dominica’s rich history and culture.
 
The community of Mahaut is also known as the village that never sleeps due to its bustling nature, and for its people who are mostly living along its narrow coastal strip, and for its transitory location in the middle of the west coast, with its collection of old estates and plantations such as Belfast, Beausejeau, Morne Georgine, and Jimmit among others.
 
These once far removed estate lands have in more recent decades been converting to new settlements for a growing middle and professional class that have come from the village as well as from all over Dominica. The once home of the recently closed Dominica Coconut Products, Dominica’s most important manufacturing plant, is well known for its fishing, farming, shop-keepers, trades people and a large army of professionals working in the public and private sector.