As 2025 ended and Haitians prepared to mark the 222nd anniversary of independence on January 1, 2026 with the traditional soup joumou, communities across the country and in the diaspora were reflecting on a year that had been, by every objective measure, catastrophic — and yet had also contained moments of resistance, solidarity, and stubborn hope that refused to be extinguished by the scale of the suffering.
The soup joumou tradition — preparing and sharing the pumpkin soup that symbolizes freedom from colonial slavery — had been observed every January 1st regardless of what Haiti was going through. It had been observed after earthquakes, under dictatorships, through epidemics. The 2026 observance would take place in communities where gang violence had displaced hundreds of thousands, where schools were closed, where healthcare was barely functioning, and where the political future remained uncertain.
And yet the soup would be prepared. Families who had been forced from their homes would find ways to mark the day. Diaspora communities in Miami, New York, Montreal, and Paris would gather for celebrations that maintained the connection to Haitian identity across distance and crisis. The UNESCO-recognized tradition would persist as it had always persisted, because Haitian cultural identity was not diminished by the disasters that afflicted the country — it was one of the resources with which Haitians survived those disasters.
The hope for 2026 was real, if qualified. The Gang Suppression Force had been authorized and initial deployment was beginning. The electoral calendar provided a path toward democratic restoration, however uncertain. The Haitian diaspora remained engaged, resourceful, and committed. And the Haitian people — whose resilience had been tested so many times and had never finally broken — were entering the new year with the same determination to survive and to build that had characterized their response to every previous catastrophe. It was, in the circumstances, a form of courage that deserved recognition.