Owru Yari & Pagara Estafette

Paramaribo says goodbye to the old year with the biggest street party in Suriname. Owru Yari is the one day when the whole city, from bank staff to market vendors, ends up dancing in the street.

From late morning, shops and businesses fire their pagara: ribbons of red firecrackers, often hundreds of metres long, detonated in relay through the shopping streets in clouds of smoke and red paper. Kaseko bands and sound systems keep the centre moving until early evening, when the city briefly empties for family dinners and church services ahead of the midnight fireworks. Celebrations roll straight into Nieuwjaarsdag on 1 January, which is a public holiday.

Good to know: Go before noon for the pagara estafette, wear closed shoes and expect the centre to be closed to traffic. Hotel rooms for New Year sell out months ahead.

Photo: Ada Korbee, CC BY 3.0