In Dangriga, Settlement Day Starts Weeks Before November 19

Most coverage of Garifuna Settlement Day starts at dawn on November 19, with the dories coming ashore. In Dangriga the season starts weeks earlier. Last year's calendar from the National Garifuna Council's Dangriga Branch opened on a Saturday in late October with an all-day ancestral offering in BackaTown. Its biggest event before the holiday was a drum parade and tribute on November 13.

How the season is built matters. The events closest to the community, an offering at a dabuyaba and a procession to a founder's grave, come in the quiet weeks before the 19th. The holiday itself is a national occasion. In 2025 the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition both spoke at the Dangriga celebration.

One caveat comes first. As of mid-October 2026, no 2026 program, theme or route for Dangriga has been published in the local news our research reviewed. Everything below comes from the 2025 calendar and earlier years' reporting. It describes how the season has run, not a confirmed schedule for this year.

How the 2025 Season Opened

On October 24, 2025, Love FM reported that the NGC Dangriga Branch had released its calendar of events leading up to November 19. It ran from Garifuna Awareness Day to a tribute to T.V. Ramos to traditional drumming sessions. Branch President Marsha Mejia invited all Dangrigans to the opening weekend. She described the first event to Love FM this way:

"We're going to have an ancestral offering at Miss Martha's Dabuyaba in BackaTown. It's going to be an all day event from 9am to 6pm. We're going to set food for our ancestors. We're going to have a mass. We're going to do the traditional Abaimahani and Arumahani and we're also going to do a Mali at the Dabuyaba and traditional drumming for a little celebration at the end."

That opening is worth a close look. Before any parade or speech, the first public act of the season was a day of setting food for the ancestors, with Mass, songs and a Mali at a dabuyaba in one of the town's older neighborhoods. It was spiritual and neighborhood-scale, and it ran from morning to evening.

The next day, a Sunday, the branch livestreamed a traditional drumming session on the NGC Dangriga Branch Facebook page from 4 to 5 p.m., according to the same Love FM report. That Facebook page is also where the branch's announcements are most likely to appear first, and so far it is the most direct place to watch for the 2026 calendar.

November 13 Belongs to T.V. Ramos

The 2025 calendar gave its central pre-holiday slot to Thomas Vincent Ramos, whom Love FM identified as the founder of Garifuna Settlement Day. Mejia laid out a route that crossed town on foot:

1. A drum parade from the Drums of Our Father Monument to Epworth Methodist Church, starting at 5 p.m.
2. The tribute itself inside Epworth Methodist Church, starting at 6 p.m.
3. A second drum parade from the church to the cemetery to lay a wreath on Ramos's grave.
4. A grand finale with traditional drumming and refreshments for those attending.

In 2025 the tribute fell on Thursday, November 13. On the 2026 calendar, November 13 is a Friday. The branch has not said whether it will keep the date or move the tribute to fit the week, so treat the date as unconfirmed until the 2026 calendar comes out.

The tribute looks back at the man who founded the holiday, and it does so at his grave, six days before the holiday itself. The national cameras arrive on the 19th. The procession to Ramos's grave is the town's own event, held in the evening at walking pace between a monument, a church and a cemetery.

A Season, by Design

Belize Living Heritage, the national intangible heritage inventory, describes Settlement Day as the culmination of a month-long series of cultural activities, with Yurumein at its heart and Dangriga's streets among the places where it is enacted. The same inventory notes that the National Garifuna Council and its local chapters coordinate the Settlement Day and Yurumein activities. In Dangriga, that means the branch Mejia leads.

Here is how last year's sequence lines up against what is known for 2026:

If the branch follows last year's timing, the offering would land around the last weekend of October 2026. That is roughly two weeks from now, so an announcement would likely come soon.

The Morning of the 19th

The day itself follows a route that has been reported in some detail. In a November 2023 preview, the NGC Dangriga president told Love FM that the Yurumein reenactment was expected to land riverside around 6:30 to 6:45 a.m. Participants would then go to Sacred Heart Church for an 8 a.m. Mass and move by drum procession to Alejo Beni Park for the official ceremony. That year, Breaking Belize News reported that the national ceremony at Alejo Beni Park began at 10 a.m., with a larger official parade later in the afternoon.

These times are from 2023. No 2024 or 2025 report confirming Dangriga's landing point or times turned up in our research. The general order of events matches the national heritage description: an early-morning dory reenactment, then a procession to church for a Thanksgiving Mass. The specific minutes may still shift.

Later in the day, the event reaches beyond Dangriga. On November 20, 2025, 7 News Belize described the previous day's celebrations in Dangriga as "full of dancing, drumming and ceremony." It aired speeches from Prime Minister John Briceño and Leader of the Opposition Tracy Panton. Panton built her remarks around the year's theme, which the NGC Dangriga Branch calendar gave as "Garifuna Moving Forward, Honoring Tradition, Embracing Change, Strengthening Identity."

The leaders of both main parties speaking at the same town's celebration on the same day shows how much the 19th belongs to the whole country. Not every part of the season happens in Dangriga, either. In 2025 the national Miss Garifuna Belize pageant was scheduled for November 1 at the Civic Centre in Belize City, according to Greater Belize Media. Breaking Belize News also covered Yurumein activities in Belize City on the same day as Dangriga's.

What Is Still Unwritten for 2026

As of October 12, 2026, these details have not appeared in local reporting:

• The 2026 Settlement Day theme
• The NGC Dangriga Branch calendar, including dates for the ancestral offering and the T.V. Ramos tribute
• The time and landing point for this year's Yurumein reenactment
• The date and venue of the 2026 Miss Garifuna Belize pageant
• Any road-closure or parade-route notices for Dangriga

Last year the branch calendar became public on October 24, according to Love FM's report that day. If 2026 runs on a similar schedule, the details for BackaTown, the Drums of Our Father Monument and Epworth Methodist Church should be posted within the next two weeks, most likely on the NGC Dangriga Branch Facebook page and through Love FM.

The team at New Dawn Realty keeps an eye on Dangriga's calendar, from the first offering in BackaTown to the morning of the 19th. If you have family arriving for November 19 or want to know more about life in the Stann Creek District, we're glad to help. Start your Belize property search with us whenever you're ready.