Saint-Martin's Day is celebrated, every other year, with our neighbors in Sint Maarten and it is first of all at the Bellevue monument that the delegations of the two parts of the island went for a wreath laying.
The ceremonies officially started early in the morning of November 11, with an ecumenical service at the Methodist church in Philipsburg in which officials from Saint Martin and Sint Maarten participated. After the French and Dutch hymns, as well as the traditional "O sweet Saint-Martin's Land", the prefect Sylvie Feucher and the governor of Sint Maarten, Eugene Holiday laid a wreath at the foot of the Bellevue monument, followed by president Daniel Gibbs and Wycliffe Smith, Acting Prime Minister of Sint Maarten.
The celebration then continued in Philipsburg, where VKS staff from the Sint Maarten Volunteer Corps, Sint Maarten police and national gendarmerie marched on Front Street. The representatives of the two parts of the island then went to the old government building where, on November 11, 1975 had been buried a metal urn containing various documents, coins of the time, but also the edition November 8, 1075 from Windward Islands Opinions.
A new capsule, containing various documents selected by all the departments of Sint Maarten, as well as a copy of the Daily Herald dated November 9, 2019 was buried at the entrance of the new government building on Pond Island.
The various speeches then stressed the need for cooperation between the two parts of the island, and the implementation of projects such as the Cay Bay wastewater treatment plant, joint law enforcement, management natural hazards, fire fighting, or the removal of shipwrecks in the lagoon of Simpson Bay.
This Saint-Martin Day continued with parades of associative groups and a concert at the Festival Village which saw the performance of several groups and choirs._RM
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