LUCEA, Hanover — A committee intent on making the year-long celebration of this parish’s 300th birthday a memorable one, is pushing to have November 12 declared Hanover Day.

In 1723, the nation’s second-smallest parish was established on November 12 from parts of Westmoreland.

Committee co-chair and deputy mayor of Lucea Andria Dehaney Grant said they will be asking the governor general to have the annual anniversary gazetted as a special day. Efforts are also being made to have the western parish twinned with the German city of Hanover, the birthplace of British monarch George I, who was from the House of Hanover and in whose honour the parish was named.

“We are hoping to have a year-long celebration; it will go from November 2023 to November 2024. It is our aim to have various activities across the parish. We want to have a day that is designated as Hanover Day. We will be having a grand day in Lucea but we will be having other activities going through to other communities across the parish,” Dehaney Grant told the Jamaica Observer after last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation when the matter was raised.

During the meeting, mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels pointed to Hanover’s rich history and its record of being one of the country’s leading tax-paying parishes for several years.

The parish capital is home to the still fully functional Lucea clock tower that was built in 1817; Fort Charlotte that was constructed in 1745 and named after George III’s wife Queen Charlotte; and Rusea’s High School’s Campus 2 which was established in 1777, making it the fourth-oldest continuously operated high school in Jamaica.

The parish is also the birthplace of Jamaica’s first prime minister and national hero, Sir Alexander Bustamante, and is also home to Dolphin Head Mountain which reaches a majestic height of 1,789 feet above the Lucea Harbour. Hanover is also famous for its ground provision, Lucea yam.