Every Day Is Special: November 5 – Colon Day in Panama

Posted on November 5, 2015

I kind of think that Panama should just shut its governmental buildings and banks and stuff for all of November – there are so many holidays this month!

November 2 is Day of the Dead.

November 3 is Separation Day (celebrating the 1903 separation from Colombia).

November 4 is Flag Day.
Today, November 5, is Colon Day (commemorating the persuasion of the Colombian forces not to fight against Panama's separation).
November 10 is Primer Grito de Independencia de Panama de Espana (the Cry for Independence from Spain, in 1821).
November 28 is Independence Day proper (celebrating the break from Spain in 1821).

I read that pretty much everything shuts down each of these days, and there are big parades, lots of music, and plenty of fireworks...and all I can say is, that's a whole lot of celebrating in one month!

Colon, Panama, is a sea port on the Caribbean Sea. It is the northern gateway to the Panama Canal (which I always think of a east-and-west passageway, because it is the gateway for ships from the eastern Atlantic Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean...BUT the canal really runs more north-and-south, because of the “S” shape of Panama).

Colon is named after Christopher Columbus. Columbus, of course, was a person around whom passions and controversy swirl – he is honored and celebrated almost as much as he is reviled and hated – and Colon, Panama, is also a bundle of contradictions:

Colon is an important Free Trade Zone (or duty-free zone), a place where posh cruise ships come, a place where tourists visit swanky resorts, a place where many of the most educated and wealthy Panamanians used to live.

The beach above is called Starfish Beach,
because it typically looks like the photo below...

But it is also a place where there has been much poverty and protest and crime; because of these negatives, many of the wealthiest inhabitants have moved to the U.S., the U.K., or elsewhere.