Culture of the Cayman Islands
Encyclopedia
Population
The main influences on the culture of the Cayman IslandsCayman Islands
The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
come from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, and Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. In total, there are approximately 113 nationalities on the three islands that make up the country. The total population of the Cayman Islands consists of just over 52,000 people, spread throughout the island group with the majority of the people found on Grand Cayman. Roughly 20,000 are native Caymanian, with the remainder of the residents originating elsewhere in the world.
In the past, most of the people of the Cayman Islands got their livelihood from the sea through fishing, turtle harvesting, and being merchant seamen.
Religion
The influences of AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and European culture are most evident in the religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
of the Cayman Islands, where Christianity is the most practiced religion. Within the island group, the denominations of Christianity that are practiced are Anglican, Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, Church of God
Church of God
Church of God is a name used by numerous, mostly unrelated Christian denominational bodies, most of which descend from either Pentecostal/Holiness or Adventist traditions.-Pentecostal Movement:*Church of God...
, Presbyterian, and United Church
United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands
The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is a united church formed on 1 December 1965 as the "United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman" by bringing the Protestant denominations "Presbyterian Church in Jamaica" and "Congregational Union of Jamaica" together...
, among others. Because religion is an important aspect of the culture of the Cayman Islands, most of the local businesses as well as the harbors and ports are closed on Sunday. As well, the same establishments are closed on Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
day.
Language
British English is the most commonly spoken language in the Cayman Islands, albeit with a distinctive Caymanian dialect. Jamaican patois is also commonly spoken in the Cayman Islands, and certain words have been integrated into the speech of younger Caymanian generations.Cuisine
The food of the Cayman Islands includes traditional Caribbean fare such as cassavaCassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
, johnny cake, bread fruit, Plantain
Plantain
Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...
, and meat pie. Jamaican cuisine has also found its way onto the menus of the Cayman Islands and Jerk
Jerk
In physics, jerk, also known as jolt , surge and lurch, is the rate of change of acceleration; that is, the derivative of acceleration with respect to time, the second derivative of velocity, or the third derivative of position...
seasoning has become popular for use on meat dishes such chicken, fish and pork. Curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
is also used frequently in rice, chicken, and fish dishes. Traditional Caymanian fare includes dishes made from turtle meat, Conch
Conch
A conch is a common name which is applied to a number of different species of medium-sized to large sea snails or their shells, generally those which are large and have a high spire and a siphonal canal....
, goat, and fish such as Grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
and Snapper
Mutton snapper
The mutton snapper is a fish of the Lutjanidae) family. Largely a Caribbean species, they can be found from North Carolina to South America. They prefer low relief reef structure searching for fishes, shrimps, crabs, squid, and snails. In the Florida keys they may be encountered in shallow water,...
.