Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during January and February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, masque and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.

Carnival is a festival traditionally held in Roman Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox societies. Protestant areas usually do not have carnival celebrations or have modified traditions, such as the Danish Carnival or other Shrove Tuesday events. The Brazilian Carnaval is one of the best known celebrations today, but many cities and regions worldwide celebrate with large, popular, and days-long events. These include the Carnevale of Venice, Italy, the German Rhineland carnivals, centering on the Cologne carnival; the carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands; the carnival of Cape Verde; of Torres Vedras, Portugal; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Rijeka, Croatia; Barranquilla, Colombia; Jamaica; the Carnaval and the Llamadas in Montevideo, Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. In the United States, the famous Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, date back to French and Spanish colonial times.

The music of Haiti is influenced most greatly by European colonial ties and African migration (through slavery). In the case of European colonization, musical influence has derived primarily from the French, however Haitian music has been influenced to a significant extent by its Spanish-speaking neighbors, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, whose Spanish-infused music has contributed much to the country’s musical genres as well. Styles of music unique to the nation of Haiti include music derived from vodou ceremonical traditions and the wildly popular Compas. Haiti didn’t have any recorded music until 1937 when Jazz Guignard was recorded non-commercially.

Pétionville is located near the capital. By the height, the climate is pleasant. The mountainous landscape of the nearby natural park, through the urban sprawl and deforestation starkt suffered. Who once dortgewesen necessarily wants to do this best by an organized tour of the north coast of the Dominican Republic: Puerto Plata, Sosua and Cabarete short taster trips to Fort Liberté (just behind the border crossing Dajabón) – including visit of a marketplace — offered. For relatively large amount of money one sees relatively little of Haiti.

Bertrand D’Orgeron attracted many colonists from Martinique and Guadeloupe, such as the Roy family (Jean Roy, 1625-1707), Hebert (Jean Hebert, 1624, with his family) and the Barre (Guillaume Barre, 1642, with his family), driven out by pressure on lands generated by extension of sugar plantations. From 1670 to 1690, a drop in the tobacco markets affected the island and significantly reduced the number of settlers.

Freebooters grew stronger, plundering settlements, such as those of Vera Cruz in 1683 and Campêche in 1686. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, elder son of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Minister of the Navy, brought back some order. He ordered the establishment of indigo and sugar cane plantations. The first windmill for processing sugar was created in 1685.

The name Haiti comes from the Taino word for the entire island of Hispaniola, Ayiti, which means “Mountainous Land”. The French staked their claim on the entire island based on the settlement of Tortuga and Gonave Islands by French pirates in the 15th and 16th centuries. The colony was officially incorporated by France in the early 1600s. By 1697, with the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick with Spain, the French took the western third of the island, which they named Saint-Domingue (a gallicization of the Spanish name, Santo Domingo (“Saint Dominic”). During this French colonial period, the colony earned the name “La Perle des Antilles” (“The Pearl of the Antilles”) due to its economic prosperity and importance. The Spanish kept control of Santo Domingo on the eastern two-thirds of the island.

With the declaration of Saint-Domingue’s independence from France on January 1, 1804, following the Haitian Revolution, Revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines restored the original Taino name as a symbolic gesture of honor to the Taino people and as defiance against European rule.

Haiti has two rainy seasons, from April to May and from September to October, with most rain falling in the mountains. If you plan to do much hiking, trekking or even driving, these might be months to avoid. The June-to-September hurricane season might be worth missing as well; though the chances of one blowing through are miniscule, remember that one little hurricane can wreck your whole holiday. The temperature is fairly constant year-round, with highs averaging around 34°C (95°F) in the summer and 30°C (85°F) in the winter. There isn’t currently a peak tourist season, making Haiti an ideal destination during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, when most Caribbean isles are packed with snowbirds slurping umbrella-laden beverages and raising the prices of food, accommodations and everything else.

It’s worth planning a visit to Haiti around Carnival (the three days leading up to Ash Wednesday) or Rara (the week leading up to Easter), when music and dancing seem to erupt spontaneously. Avoid the weeks leading up to an election, including the presidential election in December 2000, when less pleasant but equally spontaneous eruptions of passion tend to make their mark.

Port-au-Prince (pronounced /ˌpɔɹtəʊˈpɹɪns/ in English and /pɔʁopʁɛ̃s/ in French; Haitian Creole: Pòtoprens) is the capital and largest city of Haiti. Growth, especially in crowded slums in nearby plains and hillsides, has raised the population of the Port-au-Prince area to between 2.5 and 3 million. It is located on a bay of the Gulf of Gonâve, at 18°32′N, 72°20′W. The city’s layout is somewhat similar to that of an amphitheatre; commercial districts are near the water, while residential neighborhoods are located on the hills above.

Haiti (English pronounced /ˈheɪtiː/; French Haïti pronounced [aiti]; Haitian Creole: Ayiti), officially the Republic of Haiti (République d’Haïti ; Repiblik d Ayiti), is a French and Creole speaking Latin American country located on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, in the Greater Antilles archipelago. Ayiti (Land of Mountains) was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island. The country’s highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince.