LA Rose (La Woz) groups from all over the island created quite a spectacle in Gros Islet on Wednesday as they flooded the streets in flamboyant attire, singing and declaring their love for the Rose. The La Rose Festival is one of two flower festivals celebrated in Saint Lucia; the other is La Marguerite (La Magwit) celebrated in October.
The La Rose festival has been a Saint Lucian pastime for generations and like its rival, La Maguerite, is said to have been part of the social fabric of Saint Lucia for many years and the French Antilles since the early period of slavery.
The group wants more young people to be involved in the festival.
“We need more young persons to be engaged in it, it is a very lovely festival,” and they “should (be) engaged in it from an early age,” a female member from the La Rose Group said. She has been a ‘Queen’ for the past six years.
Monsignor Michel Francis echoed a similar statement at a church service recently.
“One of the concerns that I’ve always had… is that the celebration takes place outside of the school year… so our school children are really not involved in La Rose but they are in La Marguerite because it occurs just as school reopens. I’m pleased that we have a group from the (Monchy R.C. Combined School),” Monsignor Francis said at the Church of St. Rose de Lima in Monchy last Sunday.
The La Rose and La Marguerite Societies both hold an annual festival or ‘Gwan Fèt’—an elaborate and colourful event full of pomp and pageantry, which is preceded by several months of nightly singing practices called “seances”.
Presiding over the annual festivals are a ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ who are accompanied by their royal entourage of dukes, duch¬esses, princes, princesses, soldiers, policemen, magistrates, doctors, nurses, the clerical hierarchy and supporters of the respective flowers. Strict protocol is observed at those nightly seances, with every visitor or participating member, upon entering, bowing to the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ who are present with their court.
Police and soldiers in uniform enforce regulations against any disorder, breaches of protocol, or misdemeanors. (Offenders are taken before a magistrate for a mock trial and are then fined).
Each society has a patron saint and the ‘Gwan Fèt’ is celebrated on her ‘Feast Day’. For the Roses, it is the feast of St. Rose of Lima and it’s celebrated on the 30th of August.
The ‘Gwan Fèt’ is celebrated first with church services through¬out the island and afterwards with processions through the streets. (In the evening there is a sumptuous banquet to which dignitaries and leading personalities are invited. The rest of the evening is spent in dancing.)
La Rose’s ‘Gwan Fèt’ was a spectacular affair (the event was also streamed online and attracted thousands of viewers) destined to live on in the hearts of those who cherish her most.
Like members so often say, no other flower can compare to the beauty of the beloved Rose!