The Bahamas celebrates New Year's Eve with Junkanoo parades that begin in the early hours of January 1.
Junkanoo is a Bahamian street festival featuring elaborate costumes, music, dancing, and competing parade groups. The main New Year's parade traditionally starts after midnight, carrying the celebration into the first hours of January 1. Nassau hosts the most famous event, although Junkanoo is celebrated elsewhere in the country.
Participants compete in categories such as music, costumes, and overall presentation. Brass instruments, cowbells, goatskin drums, whistles, and other percussion create the parade's distinctive sound. Groups prepare for months, and costumes may involve large feathered or decorated structures.
Junkanoo is also held on Boxing Day, December 26, so it is not exclusively a New Year's event. Its history is connected to Afro-Bahamian culture and to traditions developed under slavery and emancipation, though the festival's exact name origin is debated.