Hip hip hooray! Artists celebrating at Skagen by Danish painter P.S. Krayer, 1888. (Credit: Wikipedia Encyclopedia)
At this very moment, thousands of Panamanians are getting their stuff ready to travel to the countryside to enjoy the Carnival festivities. Carnival will start on the evening of Friday, February 13, 2010 and end on Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010. The whole country will be almost paralyzed during these frenetic days of fun, dances, alcohol, costumes, queens and collective madness. There’s is popular saying in Panama, that the only topic that Panamanians take seriously are the Carnivals. I’m not kidding. This is a serious issue in this part of the world.
Droves of people flood the supermarkets every year to get their fair share of alcohol to drink during the Carnival. The heaviest drinking seasons in Panama are December (Christmas and New Year), February (Carnival) and April (Easter Week). Consumption of alcoholic beverages during these months is very high.
I recently received an excellent magazine dubbed, Martes Financiero (Financial Tuesday), about Panama finances. This magazine depict important aspects of Panama economic performance. Amongst the statistics shown on their latest issue, is the production of alcoholic beverages. Let’s take a look at the Production of Alcoholic Beverages in the Republic of Panama – Year 2008 expressed in millions of U.S. Gallons.
- January: 5.7
- February: 5.4
- March: 5.4
- April: 5.4
- May: 4.6
- June: 4.9
- July: 5.2
- August: 4.9
- September: 5.2
- October: 5.2
- November: 5.2
- December: 5.5
- Total: 62.6
- Monthly Average: 5.2
As you can see, the country produces about 5.2 million gallons of alcoholic beverages every month. This figure is staggering considering that the country has a population of only 3.4 million people. I wonder how much booze is consumed during the wild Carnival days? Good Day or should I say Skoal?
Source: Martes Financiero – Edition 616 of 02-02-10 (www.martesfinanciero.com)
