New Year's Eve in Suriname

For New Year's Eve, we went to a family friend's house for the night. They shot of hundreds of fireworks that night. There were all different kinds of food ranging from chicken to seafood.

Fireworks are an important part of New Year's Eve for many people in Suriname. The reason being is that they believe that if you start out the New Year with fireworks, you chase away all of the evil spirits and demons that may be lurking. The more fireworks you shoot off, the better your year is going to be.

One thing about the person's home that we visited was the orchids that were everywhere! The best thing is that they were actually outside. This is something that I am not used to seeing because here in South Carolina, you can't grow orchids outside. They are very hard to keep alive and they have to be inside. When we went to this friend's house, his wife had planted orchids in every vase and pot she could.

Another thing about the house were the lights that were everywhere. The people in Suriname love their Christmas lights and are not afraid to go all out. This house had a string of lights everywhere you turned. Not only that, but the new trend in Suriname was light trees. These are fake trees that have lights attached to their branches. Some change colors while others just stay one color, but they are absolutely gorgeous.

We had finally welcomed 2015! Now it was time to start preparing to go home.

Pictures taken by Paige Burge.