Cultural Heritage

Culture refers to the total way of life that is learnt and shared by any society. It is the combination of the arts, customs beliefs and institutions created by a group of people at a particular time and place which forms part of our cultural heritage.

National Dish	Bull	Masquerade

Our cultural heritage includes everything that has been handed down to us by our ancestors that continues to affect our patterns of behaviour and the way we live. However, for a thought or action to be considered cultural, it must be commonly shared by some population or group of individuals. It includes the way we dance or sing or play music. It is the way we speak, the expressions and the languages we use. It is the special foods we cook, and the way they are prepared. It is the stories that we tell or write about ourselves and the land around us. It is the toys and handicrafts we create, the way we build our homes and the traditional methods we use to fish or farm. Our culture is made up of all these things, it even includes the way we enjoy ourselves. A great aspect of our culture is our folklore such as; Clowns, Moko-Jumbies, Masquerade, Bull, and Actors. All come on display in the tremendous exuberance at Christmas time during our carnival to entertain and educate the community about our culture.

Clowns	Moko-Jumbies	Actors

The Traditional Masquerade Performing Arts of St. Kitts and Nevis emerged in the early 17 th Century embracing the deep cultural roots and traditions of Europe and the Americas but are distinctly African in interpretation.
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REFLECTIONS ON THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF ST. KITTS AND NEVIS
by Larry Armony

What is „Culture‟? We humans inhabit a world made up of oceans and seas, land, an atmosphere, plants, other animals, forests, mountains, deserts and other physical or natural components. Some of these have been and are being used and abused in the quest to provide the needs of survival: food, shelter, energy. We interact with each other through codes of conduct which we have formulated; and try to make sense of it all through rituals and belief systems we have constructed or which have been revealed to us. Read More >>