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On Friday, September 10th, the official ceremony was held to commemorate the 112th year since the Battle of St. George's Caye. The ceremony, which was held at the Memorial Park, was opened by Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers who stressed the importance of unity and that we should be proud of our history and culture. The highlight of the ceremony was the crowning of the 65th Queen of the Bay, Ms. Audralee Enriquez who to the crowd's delight was graceful and charming. The ceremony ended with Shane Saldano, Tanya Carter and Berne performing the hit song "I Am Belize". The celebrations were held under the theme "United and Proud. Moving Forward. I am Belize" which Prime Minister Dean Barrow tells us should mean a whole lot a whole to Belizeans because there is reason to keep celebrating:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"It should mean just a kind of rhetorical flourish. It should mean that we take very seriously the need for us to come together in the context of the proud legacy that we have inherited stretching all the way back to the battle of St. George's Caye and especially in the face of the current challenges. We need to be re-informed by the spirit that saw the settlers vote to stand and fight. There is a kind of modern day repetition of that sort of a story because as a country we have to now make up our minds that another stand must be taken so that we can defeat all the challenges that confront us especially the one having to do with crime and violence."

Andrea Polanco
"Prime Minister, 112 years later we are celebrating our battle of St. George's Caye. Tell me why is it so important for us as a people to continue marching to continue celebrating?"

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"History, tradition, culture these are the things that form nationhood and if we are going to be proud of this country, If we are going to be proud of this nation and we should be then we need to maintain our traditions, we need to maintain our history and vindicate our history and we need to maintain our culture."

Although there is reason to celebrate, the red, white and blue waves in the streets following the tenth ceremonies for the Citizens Parade were not overwhelming and one could almost say that it was lackluster compared to previous years. While the sounds of the marching Bands blared patriotic songs through the streets of the city few floats from the public and private sectors followed. Despite all this, Hon. Anthony Boots Martinez said that people should enjoy themselves on the tenth which he surely did dancing through the Albert….

Hon. Anthony Martinez
"Well we are Belize. I think it is very important for us Belizean to come in this happy celebration and I think all we need to do is to just enjoy ourselves today."