Bermuda Kite Photographs

There is a long-standing tradition in the Bermuda Islands of building and flying kites as part of Easter celebrations occurring on Good Friday. This collection consists of six black and white photographs prepared circa 1967-1968 by the Bermuda News Bureau for a story on Bermuda kite flying showing the final preparation, blessing, and launch of a very large hexagonal kite from a hilltop in Bermuda.

There is a long-standing tradition in the Bermuda Islands of building and flying kites as part of celebrations occurring on Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday. Although the origin of the tradition is unclear, it is said to have started on a Good Friday when a local teacher attempted to explain the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven to his Sunday school class. As a visual aid, the teacher made a kite with a cross design, flew it from a hilltop, and then cut the string, allowing the kite to rise up into the sky. Over the course of the twentieth century, the tradition of flying kites on Good Friday became firmly embedded in Bermudian culture, and led to the development of iconic kite designs specific to Bermuda. Traditional Bermuda kites are shaped either as a narrow hexagon or as a "roundy" variation with eight or 12 sides; they can range in size from about 30 inches (75 cm) across to several feet in diameter. Both types feature a "headstick" which extends up past the top edge of the kite body and supports tight strings carrying strips of paper which produce a loud humming sound when the kite is flown ("hummers"). Long streamers affixed to the bottom edges of the kite as a tail help keep the kite upright in flight as well as adding to the festive look. Bermuda kite flying eventually came to the attention of Smithsonian National Air Museum curator Paul E. Garber, a noted kite enthusiast, and in early 1968 he wrote to the Bermuda News Bureau asking for photographs of Bermuda kites in action. The Bureau provided a group of six photographs prepared for a story on Bermuda kite flying which featured the final preparation, blessing, and launch of a very large hexagonal kite from a hilltop in Bermuda. The undated photographs were likely taken on March 24, 1967, during Good Friday celebrations the previous year.