Ministry of Culture plans to reorganize and revamp Nine Mornings

The unique Vincentian tradition that is Nine Mornings is expected to receive a major makeover for the years to come, says Michael Peters, chairman of the organizing committee.{{more}}

Peters, speaking to SEARCHLIGHT yesterday, said that plans are underway to incorporate tourism at a greater level, into the Nine Mornings activities.

He said that this venture is being spearheaded by Minister of Culture and Tourism Cecil McKie.

“The Ministry of Culture is going to reorganize and revamp the whole organization of Nine Mornings from 2013,” Peters informed SEARCHLIGHT.

“It’s something the minister has said, so therefore the committee will be revamped, because his objective is to take it to a higher level, recognizing the importance of the Nine Mornings as a product to the tourism industry.”

Peters said in the reorganization, the traditional culture, heritage, history, folklore and its social impact will be brought to the forefront.

“Nine Mornings has existed for 14 years on a very small committee led by myself and Lennox Bowman; so from 2013 onwards, we will have a much broader and stronger committee organizing the festival.

“That is something that definitely will be happening; something the minister has stated earlier in the year that will be done,” said Peters.

Looking back at the festival, which ran from December 15 to 24, Peters said that once again, the organizing committee produced an exceptional calendar of events, which was well received by locals and foreigners alike.

“This year would have been a tremendous challenge with the financial situation. Our budget, in terms of money to spend, was cut by as much as 60 per cent, but we still managed to pull off a great festival with limited resources.

“It shows the level of commitment and support, especially at the rural level, because nobody gets paid; it’s the love for it and that does not happen these days in a lot of areas of our lives; everybody wants to get paid before they get involved, but we commend them for that.

“We certainly saw good participation from the rural communities. The quality of their programmes was quite good, and one of the things we have been working on over the years as a committee is to try to get people to patronize different Nine Mornings across the country and certainly that happened.

“We put in a lot of effort into strengthening these programmes, and more so maintaining the culture and Christ centeredness of these programmes, and those objectives were primarily met,” Peters said.