rara

The Haitian rara music has become truely international. Due to its popularity, efforts have been made to make it even more popular by teaching the young Haitian the Rara music.

'Rara music' is one form of traditional Haitian festival music that takes place throughout the Easter Week and is performed mainly in street processions. Its songs are sung in Kreyòl that speaks about the African ancestry of the Afro-Haïtian masses and it blends the Voodoo and Christian influences with rhythms. To preserve this form of traditional culture, Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami has created 'Rara Institute' where the teens can learn to make and play traditional Rara instruments in a formal classroom setting. Rara musical instruments generally consist of a set of cylindrical bamboo trumpets called vaksen (sometimes made of metal pipes), güiros or güiras (a percussion instrument), maracas, drums, and metal bells. Their summer workshop that culminated with the Haitian Heritage Festival in May 2015 is the start of a long-term program to incorporate Rara and other traditional Haitian music.

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Mezanmi, Gade koman Polic nan Miyami ape kale kor yo nan Ti Ayiti. Minm Polic paka kanpe gade rara sa no yo oblije souke kor-a.

Several Police Officers in Little Haiti are dancing to the sound of Rara Lakay

Polic nan Miyami kape danse Rara lakay

There is much to see, do, and experience in the community of Little Haiti. Located in Miami, this town functions as the center of the Haitian Diaspora in Florida and the U.S. Having some of the most colorful businesses, many of which focus on the arts, food, or literature, Little Haiti carries something for everyone while showcasing the best of Haitian culture. The Haiti cultural Center regularly hosts performances of dance and the theater, and restaurants throughout the area that prepare the best of Haitian cuisine.

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Here is a picture Kriz Rara in the streets of little Haiti in Miami Florida.

Kriz Rara Rev Nou Inc. Celebrates Haitian Culture

Kriz Rara Rev Nou, Inc is a Haitian Marching Roots Band that is trending in Little Haiti, Florida, begun one year ago. Kriz Rara, every Saturday night at eight or nine, makes a processional around Little Haiti, playing Haitian folk music.

During the march the band of 13 makes several Salutations to acknowledge the neighborhoods. The parade lasts two hours and 200-plus people have joined the party by the end, where they join a hanging out session.

People Experience High Spirits Traveling with Kriz Rara Rev Nou Inc.

Kriz Rara Rev Nou Inc. is a marching band that has become a Saturday night institution in Little Haiti.

The march/dance starts at Baz for a safe journey. More marchers join as the procession goes block-to-block, and refreshments are available along the way.

The march ends at Baz again where participants are encouraged to hang out, but you need to reserve a chair for the Trip as it is called.

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Here is a picture of the famous Haitian musical band Rara Lakay in little Haiti Miami Florida.

Big Night in Little Haiti is held every third Friday of each month. November's theme was Haitian Roots, part of an eight-day festival, the 31st Miami Book Fair International, hosted by Miami-Dade College's Center for Writing and Literature.

BNLH introduced Lakou Mizik to American audiences. The concert was a pastiche of music styles, influential musicians, and timely social issues, but also traditional music, reinvented for today's audiences. Lakou Mizik has recording spaces in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel.

Rara Music Embodies the Haitian Spirit

Rara, the latest genre of Haitian music, is an electronic dance music format. It is percussion-based using petwo drum rhythms from Africa. Tin horns and cylindrical bamboo trumpets round out the Rara sound.

A popular Rara group called Rara Lakay leads dancers through Little Miami streets during Lent. Other times they hold private events at homes.

The lively Rara sound emerged in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, symbolic of the resiliency of the Haitian spirit.

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Here is a tip that Furgerson or any other city having issues with race riot could learn from. Police officers and the Haitian Community as partners. In this picture, two Miami Police Officers are dancing Rara Lakay in Little Haiti.

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Haitian Voodoo does not practice striking pins into a doll to cause arm. The only dolls used in Voodoo are the ones found on altars and in graveyards representing the loas (Voodoo gods or spirits). These dolls act as lucky charms, not tools of vengeance, and are used to bless individuals, not curse them

Voodoo Myths Malign Religion's Authenticity

To the world one of the biggest misconceptions about Haiti is its practice of Voodoo. It has only been since the 2000s the Haitian government finally recognized Voodoo as a legitimate religion. Many myths have persisted about the nature of its belief system, and it is important to shed light on a religion sharing characteristics with many of the world's most practiced religions. Here are four main myths that obscure the true character of Voodoo.

1. Voodoo dolls. A made-up term, the dolls are said to be used to inflict pain on a victim by sticking pins into it. But the truth is harming others goes against Voodoo's code of ethics. Voodooists use good luck dolls they nail to trees in graveyards to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

2. Voodoo priests can re-animate the dead. Hollywood became enamored with Voodoo in the 1930s, producing movies about zombies, the undead, who were evil-doers. The truth is Haitian plantation owners gave slaves potions producing comatose-like states to work them harder, and rumors spread they were the living dead.

3. Voodooists practice human sacrifice. Consul to Haiti, Sir Spenser St. John, exploited the practice of Voodoo when he wrote the entirely fallacious Hayti: or the Black Republic in 1889, misrepresenting the facts of the religion.

4. Voodoo is evil incarnate. Voodoo has been misconstrued as a variant of Satanism, and this has been due to Hollywood's over-sensationalism of it. The truth is Voodoo shares similarities with Hinduism, Shintoism, Catholicism, and Buddhism.

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Here is a group of Rara in Aquin. This was a performance of the local rara band during the annual Destination Aquin Festivities. It is quite an event in the small town of Aquin where several thousands of people come to the town to celebrate

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Here is a picture of the popular Haitian Rara DJA-RaRa band.

the DJA-RaRa band paraded the city of New Orleans, drawing many spectators along the route of the festival. Other Haitian artists scheduled to perform at the festival include Morse and is RAM Rara band, Wyclef Jean, Emeline Michel, Tabou Combo, Djakout #1, and Ti-Coca & Wanga-Neges.

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Here is a picture of two rara members. Haitian Rara bands tour the country in the lent season. This kind of activities originates from the Voodoo religion in Haiti and members of the Christian religion in the country do not take part in it

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