26th June - Happy Independence Day
On Sunday, Madagascar celebrated it's 56th Independence day. Antananarivo has been preparing for the day over the last 2 weeks as almost every building, lamp post and statue is adorned with a Malagasy flag. The center of town was closed to traffic with a fairground and stage set up on the empty road. Every evening for the last two weeks there have been concerts on the stage by various musicians.
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| Independence day decorations |
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| Paper lanterns for sale |
Market stalls have been getting more and more colourful as paper lanterns are hung up for sale. A big tradition here is to buy lanterns for children to parade along the street on the evening of the 25th. This year we ventured out to join them. There was no official parade, just a steady stream of people making their way towards a central area. Locally that was the Talatamaty roundabout where a small stage had been set up. Although we didn't understand anything being said on the stage, we did recognise a few of the songs. It was the first time I have heard Bob Marley's ''Buffalo Soldier'' in Malagasy!
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| Ready to go into town |
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| Talatamaty concert |
It was cool to see the stream of children arriving with their lanterns, although many of them were carrying LED flashing wands instead. These wands are much safer than the paper lanterns, which are candle lit and have a habit of bursting into flames (as Bethan discovered, much to her distress), but they don't have the same aesthetic appeal!
On Sunday a military parade was held in the stadium in town, followed by more concerts. In the communities around the city, school children had their own parades, dressed in their uniforms and carrying banners. We chose to not to attend any of these parades, instead we spent the morning at our church and then made the most of the empty roads to take a visitor on a tour of Antananarivo.
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| Independence Avenue, the venue for many of the celebrations |
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