Vive La Woz

Organizers of this year’s edition of the Fet La Woz are working feverishly to observe another flower festival this Saturday.
Seventeen cultural groups are expected to participate in Saturday’s event, including Association Intergeneration de Sainte Rose de Lima, of Cayenne, a 42-strong contingent of St. Lucians, most of who migrated to the French territory two or three decades ago.
Saturday’s programme of activities includes a church service at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception at 10 a.m., followed by a street parade at 11:30.
We thought we would regale our readers with a taste of local folklore regarding the La Woz Flower Festival, one of the versions that has survived down through the years, concerning its origin.
The festival derives its roots from a story that is told of a young female plantation worker who was a domestic worker in one of the Caribbean territories then under French rule. Given her easy access to the plantation house’s pantry, the story goes that she frequently stole food items and brought them to the field slaves.
Unfortunately, her actions did not go unnoticed for too long as she was accosted one day by one of the plantation’s overseers who demanded that she emptied her bulky pockets. Facing imminent and swift justice, it is said that the young woman told the overseer that her pockets contained only roses.

At the overseer’s insistence and trembling with fear, she emptied her pockets and the story is told that the pieces of bread she had hidden had somehow miraculously turned into roses! The field slaves, the story ended, upon hearing of the “miracle”, dubbed her Saint Rose de Lima.
The story has since spawned a number of cultural groups throughout St. Lucia which have sustained the memory of Ste. Rose de Lima.
St. Lucians George and Georgiana Alexander are credited with introducing the La Woz concept to French Guiana in 1952 and the visiting Cayenne troupe is expected to showcase its knowledge of La Woz’s rich cultural influence.
The festival also serves to poke fun at its rival flower festival, La Marguerite, in songs composed each year over established melodies. For each group, a la wen (queen) and a la wa (king) are appointed to feature prominently in the proceedings.
The proceedings also include participants dressed as other influential members of society such as teachers and police officers.
Almost more than any other festivals – e.g. Carnival, Jounen Kweyol etc. – the flower festivals are the most uniquely St. Lucian and are the most deep-rooted in our traditions, having played a great part in the shaping of our people, especially those with rural backgrounds.
So this Saturday, we invite you to go out and participate, even if only as a spectator, in one of our most indigenous and enduring traditional festivals.
Vive La Woz!
(S.B.)