Happy Second New Year!

Here in Cape Town January 2nd is another holiday: the Second New Year. History behind it is that Januray 2nd was the one and only night of the year when slaves were permitted to walk the streets of Cape Town.

Today, this is commemorated by amazingly fun, bright, night parades. Community groups get together wearing their respective colors (lots of sequins involved), and they walk through the streets performing songs via horns (trumpets & trombones), drums & whistles. Two of the groups we walked along with most included the pink & green guys whose signature song for 2007 was none other than Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." (I suppose the sentiment is fitting??!??!) And, of course, just behind them was a blue & red group doing one of the ever popular U.S.-exported slow jams, "One, you're like a dream come true. Two, I just wanna be with you...".

Lots of fun to see, and a nice tradition to recongnize & celebrate in the steets of Cape Town!