Barbados

Barbados

Coordinates: 13 10 N 59 30 W

Population: 281,968 (July 2008 est.)

We’ve all heard the saying “Times change,” but does that mean the parties have to change too? Not if you ask Barbadians, or Bajans as residents of this relatively low-lying North Atlantic island refer to themselves. Since the seventeenth century, Barbados, the easternmost landmass in the Caribbean, has hosted a summer festival called Crop Over lasting several weeks. When sugar cane was the principal commodity, the event marked the end of harvest season, but it has since transformed into a larger cultural celebration centered on Bridgetown, the capital city. The festival disappeared for a few decades during the last century but was revived in 1974. Today its costumed revelers, calypso music, local arts and crafts along with an abundance of food and drink attract people to this prosperous nation, especially around Kadooment Day, the official end of Crop Over.

Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.