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Hard to believe that Hahira started its annual Hahira Honeybee Festival in the early 1980s. The Americana tradition of the festival’s parade, arts & crafts show and more hark back to an earlier period in American history.
But Hahira forged this tradition in an era when many small-town festivals started to die. The Hahira Honeybee Festival started in an age when new entertainments were taking root across the nation and in South Georgia.
Culturally, the early 1980s will be better remembered as the beginning of MTV, the rise of video games, cable television, the ability for a family to rent a movie to play in their homes, and any number of entertainments that could easily distract folks from attending an old-fashioned parade or festival.
But not in Hahira.
Hahira started a festival in the midst of all of these technological entertainments which have only grown more elaborate and more popular in the past few decades. Yet, Hahira’s Honeybee Festival has not only survived. It has thrived.
Tens of thousands of people regularly attend the annual parade which is scheduled to return Saturday, Oct. 6, to Downtown Hahira. They leave behind their cable TV, Internet, video games, central air-conditioning, DVDs, and CDs to come to the Hahira Honeybee Festival.
Or, at least, they bring many of those things with them in their smart phones, but they come to the festival anyway.
They come to celebrate a town and their neighbors and a hopefully golden Saturday afternoon with a bit of cool in the air as a parade passes by.
They will do so this weekend again for the 31st Annual Hahira Honeybee Festival, and if Hahira remains true to the festival’s roots, people will likely still attend in another 31 years or even to the year 3131 despite the technological advances of other entertainment.
What We Think
Why we love the Honeybee Festival
- What We Think
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Historic day celebrated
On January 1, 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious areas are and henceforth shall be free.
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How this garden grew
A special-needs couple wanted a garden. A teacher not only wanted to teach gardening skills but she also wanted to instill a sense of community purpose within her young students.
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Happy Father’s Day
He beamed with pride on our birth. He understood worry upon our birth. He is the giant by which we would judge all men. He protected us. He provided for us. He often sacrificed time with us to provide for us. He spent time with us.
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Thumbs up
THUMBS UP: To Stevie Young of Valdosta. The owner of Artistic Taxidermy, Young won Best in the World, Turkey, in the 2013 World Taxidermy Championship. His eastern wild turkey display dominated the competition, earning him the distinction of best in the world. Another title for TitleTown!
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Canning preserves food, way of life
When the going gets tough, the tough getting canning. Valdosta-Lowndes County residents have this opportunity.
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PSST!: Round Two!
With tonight’s opening of “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” Peach State Summer Theatre presents its second show of the 2013 season.
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A responsible fix for pets
The photo and story in Sunday’s paper about the dog whose owners had left him tied up with an electrical cord elicited a tremendous response from readers, outraged at the dog’s treatment.
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A band-aid in a crisis?
The announcement Monday by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities that a crisis stabilization center will be built in Lowndes County is good news for some, not so great for others.
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Slowing down for summer
Twenty-some years ago, it seemed Valdosta and South Georgia slowed down for the summer. School was out. Controversies seemed to dwindle. People seemed to work shorter hours despite the longer days.
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Storms: Of preparation and prayer
If you haven’t already, maybe this morning in church would be a good time to say a prayer of thanks that Tropical Storm Andrea blessed us with some much-needed rain while sparing us the overwhelming catastrophe that weather has wreaked upon the Midwest in recent weeks.
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Historic day celebrated
