Port-au-Prince, 1 January 2022 (TDI): Haitian Independence Day is celebrated on January 1st every year and it is a public holiday nationwide. The day commemorates the declaration of independence from France in 1804 and is the National Day of Haiti.
History of Haiti’s Independence Day
The French first settled on the island of Hispaniola when French sailors in the 16th century, set base in the western region of the island. France established its colony of Saint-Domingue by 1659. Gradually, the colonists established sugarcane plantations.
Haitian Revolution began in 1791 when slaves of Saint-Domingue launched a rebellion against the French authorities. However, in 1793 the rebellion subsided when the French abolished slavery. Toussaint Louverture became prominent leading the 1791 rebellion. He drafted a new constitution for Saint-Domingue as well, in 1801.
With the intent to restore French authority in the region, Napoleon sent additional troops to the colony. Eventually, the French captured Louverture in 1802 and later deported him to jail in France, where he died in 1803.
After the death of Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines took over the leadership of the revolution finally defeating the French troops at the Battle of Vertières in November 1803. As a result, France withdrew its remaining troops from the island.
On January 1st, 1804, Dessalines officially declared the former colony’s independence, in the city of Gonaïves, as a free republic. Later he renamed it “Haiti” after its indigenous name and assumed the role of the First Emperor of Haiti.
Haiti was the first independent state in Latin America as well as the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world.
Celebrations of Independence Day
In the honor of Independence Day, celebrations are conducted all across the country. Parades are conducted in the capital, Port-au-Prince to commemorate the occasion. In addition, fireworks, dancing, and renditions of the national anthem are held to honor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the hero of the revolution.
A celebratory tradition in Haiti is ‘soup joumou’ which means pumpkin soup. The history of the tradition is linked with colonialism when the slaves in Haiti were prohibited from drinking soup joumou since it was considered a delicacy for the colonialists.
