Bajan Colors

Barbados is a beautiful and colorful island all year around. Even in January I can look outside and see pink, yellow, white and red flowers blooming everywhere!

Since this is a tropical island, you see both men and women wearing light weight fabrics of every color imaginable. Beach wear which is used all year around because of our climate, consist of many prints, styles and colors. Two things to remember about swim suits, #1 you must wear a bathing suit as there are no nude beaches in Barbados and #2 you cannot wear just a bathing suit inside a store, bank or place of business as you must be covered in a wrap of some sort and men you cannot go bare chested.

The perfect place to see people dressed in every color in the rainbow is Queens Park* on Christmas Day. A tradition that is still practiced today when families would wear their new Christmas clothes to the park to hear the Royal Barbados Police Band play.

Many people visit Barbados and they are colorful also. Although  the population is mostly African descent, I see visitors that are of every nationality, race and creed visiting our shores. The main source of income for the island is tourism. All are welcomed and treated with wonderful bajan hospitality on this island!

Back home in Boston its okay to have the biggest house but very few want the  odd colored  house in the neighborhood. In fact, every house that I have lived in my adult life has been white with different colored trims. In Barbados and most of The Caribbean wild or bold colors that stand out are perfectly acceptable and in fact are admired! I see houses that are painted electric blue, and every shade of red, orange, yellow, pink and green but I do not see many white houses.

When choosing colors for our newly renovated house which was originally white with brown trimming, (dull colors for The Caribbean), we considered a bright shade of orange, yellow or green. We (or should I say Sandra)  finally decided to go with the  independence colors which are yellow, blue and black. Now, our house is  known as a landmark when giving directions for our district, they say, “When you pass the house with the pretty pretty patriotic colors, ya gettin close!”

*Look at my post ->”Bajan Christmas Past” for information on the Queens Park tradition