Thirty-eight national heroes will be awarded at Government House on Monday by Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling, who also serves as Chancellor of The National Heroes Committee.
Monday, October 8 is officially recognized as National Heroes Day in The Bahamas, replacing the once-celebrated Discovery Day holiday on October 12. However, there has been some confusion on whether National Heroes Day replaced Discovery Day when the day was implemented in 2013.
“Discovery Day remains the 12 of October and this is a time too for education,” said Chairman of the National Heroes Committee, Father Sebastian Campbell, who on Friday told Eyewitness News that the National Heroes Day celebrations in no way interferes with Discovery Day.
He added that the new law that recognizes National Heroes Day does not rescind the Discovery Day celebrations at all.
“To be clear, the law says that the second Monday of October is to be observed as a National Holiday [National Heroes Day] where we honour the heroes of the Bahamas,” Campbell said.
Meanwhile, Campbell encouraged Bahamians not to wait for others to honour Bahamian heroes.
“Don’t wait for the government or any entity to say who your heroes are,” Campbell said. “We encourage every community in The Bahamas to celebrate their heroes as we set them apart as role models in our society.”
Campbell said the whole “fallacy” of Discovery Day – which according to him wasn’t a discovery at all – needs to be addressed.
__
This article was written by GINELLE LONGLEY, Eyewitness News intern.
