The La Woz Festival (the Rose Festival) is celebrated in Saint Lucia on August 30 each year. It is one of two flower festivals that form part of Saint Lucia’s cultural heritage.
Throughout the month of August, La Woz seances are held in communities across the country, with the festival culminating in a church service and “Gwan Fete La Woz” in one community.
The community chosen this year was Monchy, Gros Islet. The church service there was guided by the chief celebrant, Monsignor Patrick Anthony, who made an appeal for a national flower festival to be held in Saint Lucia, specifically in Monchy.
“I had a vision of Saint Lucia having flower festivals. Saint Lucia should have a big festival of flowers and Monchy should be the centre of that. Viv La Woz!” proclaimed Monsignor Patrick Anthony. The church service was being held at the St Rose De Lima Church in Monchy, named after the same patron saint as the festival.
Anthony said he was putting this idea, which he had been promoting since the 70s, to the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) and Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture Dr Ernest Hilaire, who was in attendance.
Anthony reminded parishioners that Monchy was his home, as this was the first parish where he served as priest. He also reflected on a time when the La Woz Festival was “excommunicated” by the Catholic Church because of behaviour deemed “not so nice”. He went on to credit the late Bishop Charles Gachet for reconciliation between the Church and the flower festival, with the late visual artist Sir Dunstan St Omer as the bridge.
St Omer, according to Anthony, was commissioned to create murals in some churches and combined Christian and cultural imagery in the process.
Pointing to the mural in the church on Sunday, Monsignor Patrick Anthony explained that the wreaths shown in the hands of baby Jesus portrayed the two flower festivals celebrated in Saint Lucia – La Woz and La Marguerite.
“Monchy cest Mama La Woz”, Anthony stated, continuing his presentation in both Kweyol and English. “Bring this novel feature in tourism here. Let us make Monchy a centre for flower festivals so that when you have La Woz, you have La Woz for the whole August month. People should be coming from all around the Caribbean.”
Likening the idea to Saint Lucia Jazz and Lucian Carnival, he reiterated his call for a Saint Lucia Flower Festival.
“I’ve also said, ‘Every household in Monchy should have a rose garden around it.’ Could you imagine if Monchy had roses and other flowers in every household, and then we could have the best household competition, Minister?’” Anthony said, once again directing his idea at Dr Hilaire.
“We can get some money to give the best flower garden in Monchy, give them $10 000,” he said, eliciting murmurs of agreement from the congregation.
According to Monsignor Patrick Anthony, Monchy was sitting on a gold mine. “You know what we have behind us by the sea here?” he asked. “Dauphin,” he answered, explaining that Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott’s first play was “Sea at Dauphin”.
“The children in the schools should be putting on the Sea at Dauphin at Monchy. CDF, you should have a Walcott competition. Encourage people to do “Sea at Dauphin” right here in Monchy… I mean, we have so much potential, and we are not making use of it.”
Activities for the Lawòz Festival 2026 continued in Monchy on Sunday following the church service at the Monchy playing field. Presentations in song and dance were done by La Woz groups from various communities in Saint Lucia as well as a visiting group from Martinique.
It is pure ridiculousness for the monsignor to claim he had a vision that the flower festivals should be held in Monchy. If that be the case , he can also claim that his sky daddy told him any manner of nonsense to spread the the already gullible sheep. I am appalled by the level of church involvement in a cultural event that celebrates our ancestors freedom from slavery, the very slavery the church encouraged to inflict on our people. So now the seigneur is having visions. Even the baby jesus now hold the respective flowers in his hand….If anyone believes that, then it explains why our people are so prone and gullible. Granted, that people are allowed to believe what so ever they want, but for the church leader to now claim he had a vision…a vision no one can corroborate, confirm or verify, shows how depraved this entire façade called religion is.
He had a vision? Seriously? People should speak out against this empty nonsense. Our flower festivals have been highjacked by the church. To show how the church has dilly dallied on cultural events , the monsignor even highlighted that these said same flower festivals were banned by the catholic church but now see how deep the church have their fingers in our flower festivals because the church see an opportunity to capture the very people who celebrate the flower festivals by trying to imply that there is some divine mandate from the baby jesus to host the flower festivals in Monchy. If the church had any truth, they would never banned the festivals in the first place. But such actions shows how empty a man made institution like religion is.
This needs to be far more sophisticated than it is currently. A general flower festival with red and purple as the theme. It should also be an event to showcase real flowers, where growers are judged according to rose breeds for instance and cash prizes allocated, possibly with a crowd favourite with phones to vote on the spot. The govt can allocate some prize money for this. does not have to be extravagant But a grower getting a 5000 for his top flower makes a huge difference. Flowers can also be bought and sold at this festival. Kids games corners should be apart of these festivals. Not blokos and rum. The people organising these things need more sophistication beyond ti boutique mentality. And the government ministers backing it know better, having been in other countries , but is too lazy to do whats right!