Religion
Religion plays a significant role in life on the island. Up to 95% of the populace identifies itself as "Christian" (whether practicing or otherwise), and with its long British ties, the Anglican church comprises the largest segment of the population. However, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, and other Christian denominations also support congregations. The Christian population celebrates its deeply-rooted faith in an annual festival, Gospelfest. Smaller Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim communities add some religious diversity. The Rastafarian faith also has its community of adherents, sometimes complaining of discrimination in schooling and employment.
In addition to Gospelfest, Barbados holds many other carnivals and festivals. The Landship is a Barbadian tradition. It mimics and parodies the Royal Navy, and incorporates music, dance and games. The largest and most important festival in Barbados is Crop Over, which celebrates the end of the sugarcane harvest. Lasting three weeks, it includes fairs, parades, and contests.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Barbados
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“I read ... an article by a highly educated man wherein he told with what conscientious pains he had brought up all his children to be skeptical of everything, never to believe anything in life or religion or their own feelings without submitting it to many rational doubts, to have a persistent, thoroughly skeptical, doubting attitude toward everything.... I think he might as well have taken them out in the backyard and killed them with an ax.”
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“Whitman is like a human document, or a wonderful treatise in human self revelation. It is neither art nor religion nor truth: Just a self revelation of a man who could not live, and so had to write himself.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)