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Aruba.
Aruba.
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Culture:
The culture of Aruba is of European, Native, and African origin.
Aruba, one of the many islands that make up the Caribbean, was first discovered and claimed by the Spanish in 1499. Yet evidence and records show that the Spanish were definitely not the first people on the island. Painted petrographs left behind on walls and the ceilings of caves and excavated ancient artifacts of the Arawaks have been found in Aruba, indicating that the Caiquetios, peoples of the Arawak tribe that migrated north from the Orinoco Basin in South America, were in fact the very first inhabitants of the island.
The people and culture of Aruba have many different backgrounds, ranging from the Indians, to the Spanish, and more recently, the Dutch. Yet through the years Aruba has become the home for many different people, especially since the 20th century when industry has blossomed and people from all corners of the world call this island home. It can be said that Aruba is now made up of at least 40 different nationalities all living peacefully together.
Nowadays, the nearly 88,000 inhabitants of Aruba reflect its greatly changing history. Through local foods, architecture, celebrations, and languages can immediately be seen the different influences the past settlers had on the island. Yet the Dutch continue to be the most influential people in Aruban society, since the Dutch language is the official tongue of the Aruban people and Aruba continues to have close ties to the Netherlands.
Aruba has its own distinct culture, which often includes celebrations. Color and music play an important role in the majority of cultural events, most notably in the yearly Carnival and Dia Di San Juan (St. John's Day) celebrations.
For Dia Di San Juan, Arubans dress in red and yellow traditional shirts and black traditional trousers to represent fire. This celebration originates from a combination of pre-Christian Arawak harvest festivals and the works of Spanish missionaries to combine them with the celebration of San Juan. Aruba is the only country in the world that celebrates this day with dancing and singing. During the celebration a singer will chant a familiar "dera gai" (bury rooster) tune while players accompany the song with drum, violin, and a local instrument called a wiri. While they sing, they will choose someone to come and try to hit a fake rooster with their eyes closed. When that person hits that rooster, it will bring a wonderful smell that comes from the fruit (calabash).
Arubans often refer to Carnival as Bacchanal, a term based on the Greek and Roman celebrations dedicated to Dionysus for the Greeks and Bacchus for the Romans, their god of wine, vegetation, and cheer. Aruba's Bacchanalia shares some similarities with the ancient celebrations.
The Greeks wrote tragedies for these celebrations, and modern-day Arubans also use this time for artistic expressions. Similarly, they each have a religious significance. Aruba's Carnival is about cleansing one's body of sins, like the historic celebrations, and helps the people of Aruba prepare for Lent. "Aruba's Official Carnival Concept Design", as it is called, infuses themes of music, dance, colors, creativity, and merriment.
The New Year celebration in Aruba also includes a number of cultural superstitions and traditions; the traditional celebration is called dande. The name dande, also spelled dandee, comes from the Papiamento word dandara, meaning "to revel, to carouse, or to have a good time". After King William III of the Netherlands declared slaves to be free, the celebration began.
A group of five or six people usually performs these rituals, though more can join in. These people accompany a singer and travel door-to-door to express their best wishes for the New Year in repetitive songs, with a chorus that includes the phrase "ai nobe" (aña nobo) – "new year" – sung after each phrase. The celebratory travel usually leads to the houses of the singers' friends and family, where the host collects money in his hat to give to the group. Certain districts may have their own dande groups performing on the second day of the year. On the best view, the word dandee from dandara also means "to go from a place to an other" that is not a ritual but to make peace between neighbors that had an argument in the past year and a wish to begin with a blessed new year and "ay nobe" from a Spanish word "can't see", meaning "can't see the argument"
Cuisine:
In the traditional menu maize dishes ( funchi , pan bati ), goat meat, fish, and stoba —stewpots of local vegetables (peas, beans) dominate. Nowadays, rice, chicken, beef, and fish are eaten most. The number one snack is the pastechi , a small pie filled with cheese or beef. International food chains and Chinese, Italian, and other ethnic restaurants have gained popularity. Most food products are imported.
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Food is an important ingredient at most secular celebrations. At children's parties a piñata filled with sweets hangs on the ceiling. Blindfolded, the children try to hit the piñata with a stick. Bolo pretu (black cake) is offered at special occasions.
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Music:
The music of the former Netherlands Antilles is a mixture of native, African and European elements, and is closely connected with trends from neighboring countries such as Venezuela and Colombia and islands such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Haiti, Martinique, Trinidad, Dominica, and Guadeloupe. The former Netherlands Antilles islands of Curaçao and Aruba are known for their typical waltzes, danzas, mazurkas and a kind of music called tumba, which is named after the conga drums that accompany it.
The remaining islands are much smaller than Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. They are Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Saba. Sint Eustatius has little nightlife, with only one nightclub (the zouk Largo Height Disco)[1] as of 1996. The inhabitants, "Statians", hold impromptu street dances called "road blocks", using booming car stereos. Saba has a number of dances at various restaurants, including a wide variety of hip hop, calypso, soca, kompa, zouk, bouyon, reggae and merengue. Sint Maarten has a well-known Carnival tradition featuring music and dance, held in mid-April and culminating in the traditional burning of King Moui-Moui, as well as a number of nightclubs and casinos featuring music; popular "spots" where locals go to dance include Boo Boo Jam and Lago Height, both located on the northern (French) part of Sint Maarten; the most popular recent casino band is King Bo-Bo, known as the "King of Calypso".
Music is very closely connected to the Aruban culture, and plays a major role in holidays, carnivals and informal celebrations. Carnival music originated in Trinidad in the late 18th century, and combines romantic themes, calypso-inspired tunes, and drums from tumba. Other Aruban celebrations that are based around music include Dera Gai, Dande, Gaita and Aguinaldo.
Ethnic Racial Composition:
* 80% Mixed (European,Amerindian,African)
* 20% Others (mainly Black, some White)
Languages:
The official languages of Aruba is Dutch and Papiamentu. Papiamentu is the loca dialect for every Aruban and it is spoken mostly in informal situations, Papiamentu is a language that evolved over 300 years ago when Spanish and Portuguese colonists were influenced by African languages from the slaves, later also by the Dutch. Papiamentu is a 16th and 17th century Portuguese-Spanish Creole language with influences from Dutch and African languages.
Religion:
Over 81% of the island is Roman Catholic. The other 19% is of many different beliefs.
Sports:
Aruba plays many different sports, such as soccer, baseball, cricket, and swimming etc...
Aruban videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6DrhgVzra0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbQidxjIGTg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epiAkJ2Z0ig
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I went once in my life, in a 5 days vacation when I was an 8 years old kid.
I remember that I was impressed that we could see the entire island from the airplane, and that it was very flat. And I remember that I was also impressed of that only hill that standed up like a thumb in the flat island. I remember that once we went out of the airport, the first place we went to it, was to an Asian restaurant (don't remember if Chinese).
I liked Orangestad, with its colored buildings, with Dutch style architecture. I remembered most of its streets were one way streets.
