It’s a birthday celebration in the Bahamas today. Always a day worth celebrating and I love how the fun is usually back to old fashioned basics. Food, family and friends and just, well, fun! Just like in the good old USA except instead of apple pie and burgers, there is cracked conch and coconut pie. Lol. All good!

This is a picture of my son participating in one of his favourite events of the celebrations–the Slippery Pole Contest. What you don’t see is there is a small piece of fabric attached to the end of that long pole. AND the participants AND pole are covered in grease; in this case, Crisco.

Object of the game

While greased and suspended above the water, the object of this game is to grab that piece of fabric and rip it off–you then usually win a prize in addition to the admiration of the crowd that is watching.This is a huge crowd pleaser!

Here you see the community officials greasing up the pole that has been secured and smoothed.

This is the first group to venture out…they are grouped by gender and age. And yes, ALL ages get a chance to play! It can get brutal out there-LOL!

Here is my son caught in his free fall after hanging on like a sloth for a few moments. Hard to do while wet and greased. The winner had been the young man to the right holding up the cloth. This took several attempts, with the participants falling into the saltwater, climbing out and sliding back out. The girls went next and it just got funnier and crazier.

The day is chock full of fun and fireworks in every direction will fill the night sky and signal the end to the Independence Day celebrations. Happy Birthday Bahamas!