And the tenth was almost not celebrated since, technically, the country is in a period of mourning for the late queen. But on Saturday when we asked the PM about it, he explained that while the festivities would go on, they would not be as grand. Here's how he put it:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I saw some people, I was there this morning at the official ceremonies and I saw like two groups out there. Obviously it's not going to be a massive parade but some people feel strongly that they still want to do it and we gave them the option for them to decide whether they want to and they said that they want to but that they're going to tone it down and not be boisterous and loud but to still be able to celebrate our national day, to celebrate an important part of our history when it was first time the people, the settlers decided that they're going to stay and they're going to fight for Belize. Now you can question whether they went on a canoe, that's another topic for discussion for another day but the important thing is that it was on the tenth that they decided, we are staying, we are not running away anymore."
