Suriname Edition
World Street Corner Music Day leads today's complete edition for Suriname.
Daily Edition
Official observances, world days, local context, and everyday celebrations for people who need something worth reading, sharing, or talking about today.
A day for songs heard from passing cars, markets, radios, festivals, windows, workplaces, and family gatherings.
On August 8, 1890, the first 94 Javanese indentured laborers arrived in Suriname aboard the ship SS Prins van Oranje. The Javanese were told they were going to a land of opportunity. Instead, they found conditions so brutal that 25% of the early arrivals died. But they also brought something that would transform Suriname forever: they brought the wayang (shadow puppet theater), the gamelan orchestra, and the tradition of selamatan (communal feasting where everyone eats from the same plate). Today, the Javanese-Surinamese community (about 14% of the population) has preserved Javanese traditions that have actually disappeared from Java itself. The Javanese language spoken in Suriname is a time capsule : it's closer to 1890s Javanese than modern Indonesian is. Suriname's Javanese are more Javanese than the Javanese.
