Music of the Bahamas

The music of the Bahamas is associated primarily with junkanoo[?], a celebration which occurs on Boxing Day (December 26) and again on New Year's Day (January 1). Parades and other celebrations mark the ceremony.

The word is said to be derived from a Ghanaian leader, John Connu[?], or from the Qujo[?] supreme deity (Canno[?]) and ancestral spirits (jannanin[?]). The junkanoo was formerly practiced in North Carolina and remnants still exist in Belize, Jamaica and, most commonly, Bermuda. Its capital, though, is the Bahamas and Nassau, Freeport and the Family Islands[?].