Baron Bliss Day

Baron Bliss Day, a national holiday is celebrated today, Monday, March 7th, providing a three day weekend.

The fourth Baron Bliss of the Kingdom of Portugal, Henry Edward Ernest Victor Bliss, was an Englishman by birth. In 1926, he sailed in his yacht Sea King to Belize and fell in love with the green Caribbean Sea, the cayes and balmy climate.

The Baron came to Belize from Trinidad, where he was a victim of food poisoning. He spent some months off the coast of Belize aboard the Sea King, attempting to recover from this illness. He never came ashore. Fishermen and colonial administrators treated him kindly and taught him about Belize. The Baron died of food poisoning, but not before he changed his will, leaving almost $2 million dollars to Belize in a trust fund. The fund is used for the benefit of Belizeans and has made possible the building of the Bliss Institute Library and Museum in Belize City, health clinics and markets around the country, and has helped with the Belize City water supply system. The Baron is considered Belize's greatest benefactor.

Part of the trust was designated for an annual boat regatta which is held every year in honor of the Baron. The focus of Baron Bliss Day in Belize City is this regatta. Other towns in Belize celebrate the day by having small boat races and parties.

There is a Baron Bliss Memorial Lighthouse and Park located in Belize City in the Fort George Area. The Baron's tomb lies under the lighthouse overlooking the harbor entrance to the city.

The San Pedro Sun Takes a Vacation

SPSUN Editorial - July 8, 2010 -For the last several weeks the staff at The San Pedro Sun has agreed that we are long over-due for a vacation. Often blurry eyed and sleep deprived, the thought of a vacation has been the dangling carrot that has keep us inspired to get ‘er done. And no wonder we are feeling like we need a vacation, the last full week we had off was almost a year ago in August, 2009. Sure we have had our share of three day weekends and of course
Christmas brought a few days off at a time, but we are good and ready to spend a week doing anything but work.

Unfortunately a true week off is not a reality when it comes to news…as news never knows when to take a holiday. No matter how hard we might try to relax, our news “radar” is always on, and no matter how dedicated we are to properly relaxing we are equally dedicated to reporting the news. It’s in our blood and there’s no denying a breaking story when it happens.

Whatever it is that we chose to do to properly enjoy our time off let’s keep our fingers crossed that it will be a slow news week because it is pure torture for a reporter to sit back and watch news happen without getting involved! You can bet if we hear a screaming fire engine pass us while we are sunning on the beach sipping a cold one our camera-finger will be twitching and the urge to chase the story will pull at our vacation sensibilities. Hopefully the news will take a vacation with us next week and we can all enjoy a holiday!