Celebrate New Year Bahamas Style

Besides their pristine beaches and laid back ‘beachy’ attitude, Bahamas are a famous flight deals destination for their exciting annual festival. The nationwide street carnival, known as Junkanoo, is held on two separate days: Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year’s (January 1). Look for flight deals to Nassau to be in the best place to experience Junkanoo, although the festival takes place all over the Bahamas. Elaborate parades and constant music are the trademarks of this celebration, and parades are judged in fierce competitions every year. Junkanoo will literally keep you partying until the morning hours, as the parades usually start at 2:00am and end around 10:00am. Find competitive airline prices for cheap flights to the Bahamas and join in this beloved holiday tradition.

The Junkanoo parades are full of dance troupes that sometimes have hundreds of dancing members, all outfitted in colorful costumes. Dance troupes will pick their own theme for their dance routine and costumes and keep the theme secret until the day of the festival. Many costumes are made of crepe paper and cardboard, and decorated with anything that makes noise - copper bells, whistles, horns, and goat skin drums and accompanied by entire brass band sections. In the center of Nassau, this parade makes its way right down Bay Street, with thousands of people dancing, stomping and singing and the crowds watching all chiming in too. Parade participants can spend up to a whole year designing their costumes and practicing their dance moves. To see some of the previous year’s costumes, you can even visit the Junkanoo Museum in downtown Nassau. Legend has it that this festival started in the 16th or 17th century on the islands with slaves brought from West Africa. For Christmastime, the slaves had three days of no work, and they decided to celebrate by creating masks and costumes and dancing happily to recall times of freedom. Today, the dance remains a cherished symbol of Bahamian culture and freedom, a celebration that visitors come from miles away on flights to the Bahamas to witness and participate in.

Junkanoo has been compared to Rio de Janeiro’s Carnaval and New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. You won’t want to try to get last minute flights for this festival - book as early as you can for airline discount prices! Junkanoo celebrations have even been extended to Miami and Key West, although these are held in June and October respectively, since you’ll have to find flights to Bahamas to get the Caribbean’s winter temperatures. Search for cheap tickets to Bahamas today and plan on partying in Nassau this winter. Celebrate the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one Bahamian style.