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local Monday 6 January 2025

The 71st Carnaval season is in full swing!

(Oranjestad)—It’s Aruba’s favorite time
of the year again, and locals are gear-
ing up for the 71st edition of Carnaval
starting this week. This upcoming Satur-
day, January 11th, Aruba will have its
opening parade, welcoming the Car-
naval season with the “Torch Parade”
or known locally as, “Parada di Flam-
beu.”

From January 11th to March 2nd there
will be dozens of Carnaval activities
that locals and visitors can enjoy, rang-
ing from parades and music festivals to
the annual coronation of Carnaval’s
“Prins y Pancho”, Carnaval Queens
and “Sra. Carnaval” (Mrs. Carnaval).
The next two months will be jam-packed
with events, and we wouldn’t want you
to miss out on the fun. To make sure you
don’t, here’s the official schedule for
this year’s Carnaval program, provided
by the official Carnaval organization,
SMAC.
All parades are free for anyone to en-
joy. However, some music festivals and
carnaval competitions may require
you to purchase a ticket to attend. For
any questions or concerns about up-
coming carnaval events, please e-mail
us at news@arubatoday.com, or visit
SMAC’s official Facebook page. q

Aruban legends: Frenchman’s Pass

(Oranjestad)—If you ever The French colonizers tried needed a ride real bad,
plan on taking a group to smoke them out of the he didn’t think twice and
tour of the island, you may caves, but the indigenous jumped in. But to his horror,
pass through the French- settlers ended up inhal- he noticed that the there
man’s Pass in Balashi. The ing too much smoke and was no driver in the front.
Frenchman’s pass (known most died in those caves. Paralyzed with fear, he
to locals as “Franse Pas”) From then on, this passage didn’t dare to get out, and
remains a mysterious—and was known as Frenchman’s the car started to move.
spooky—road of which its Pass, and there have been
legend is told from genera- many accounts of spirits When approaching a
tion to generation. roaming the area of Span- sharp turn, the hitch hiker
ish Lagoon. braced for impact, but just
The history of the French- when he though the car experience. Everyone grew
man’s pass—and how it got There are many ghost sto- might drive straight off the quiet, because they real- French man’s pass is one
its name—dates back to ries surrounding this area, road and crash, he saw a ized he wasn’t some drunk of the few sites on the is-
the colonization era, when but one of the most famous hand appear out the win- messing around; he was land that keeps the locals
the French tried to colo- one involves a lonely hitch- dow and turn the wheel. telling the truth. on their toes. While most
nize the island, but were hiker, trying to find a ride For the next few turns, the ghost stories may not have
met with an angry mob of back home in the dark hand appeared again. Af- Sometime later, two men real grounds—or some may
indigenous settlers, refusing rainy night. ter having had enough, the walked into the bar and even be a set up story for a
to give up their land. How- man decided to jump out one of them noticed the joke, this pass contributes a
ever, as the French were Sometime after trying to and he ran to Santa Cruz. hitchhiker. He called out to lot to our culture of folkloric
heavily equipped with fire hitchhike, the man saw a his buddy and said: “Look, story-telling. q
arms, the indigenous set- car approaching, appear- Arriving at a nearby bar, he there’s the idiot who sat
tlers began to retreat, and ing almost ghost-like in the ordered a drink and began in our car when we were Source: visitaruba.com
hid away in nearby caves. rain. However, since he to tell everyone about his pushing it!”