Montserrat

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Country Name

Montserrat.

Location

Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean.

The island is in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the chain known as the Lesser Antilles, in the West Indies.

Its nearest neighbors in the island chain include Guadeloupe to the southeast, Antigua & Barbuda to the northeast, and Nevis to the northwest.

Montserrat is nicknamed "The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean" both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants.

Capital

Plymouth.

Reason for naming the country

In 1493, Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Montserrate, after the Virgin of Montserrat in the Monastery of Montserrat, on Montserrat mountain, near Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain.

"Montserrat" means "serrated mountain" in Catalan.

Flag

The Montserrat flag was officially adopted in 1962.

The Montserrat flag is composed of a dark blue background with the Union Jack on the canton, and in the right half of the flag is the country’s coat of arms. The coat of arms consists of a woman in a green dress with her left arm wrapped around a black cross in a hug and her right arm grasps a yellow harp.

The blue color represents determination, awareness, honesty, and honor

The coat of arms represents the heritage of the Montserrat people in Ireland, and the woman in the Montserrat Coat of Arms represents Erin which is a symbol of independence in Ireland. also, the harp represents the Irish Heritage.

This is most likely because most of the immigrants to Montserrat came from Ireland in the seventeenth century. The black cross represents the country’s leading religion of Christianity.

Language

The two official languages in Montserrat are English and Montserrat Creole which is widely spoken on the island.

The English language is the de facto national language while the Montserrat Creole is indigenous and falls under the classification of an active language, which means that while it is not standardized, it is widely used amongst people from different generations.

Montserrat Creole borrows a lot of words from both British and American English.

Along with the languages spoken today, Irish was also once spoken on Montserrat because Irish indentured laborers were among the first European settlers on the island.

Religion

The dominant religion in Montserrat is Christianity. The Catholic church has been present since the first Europeans arrived, The Anglican church was the favored and established church of the English colonizers.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Methodist missionaries began to work assiduously in Montserrat, as they did elsewhere in the Caribbean. These three groups, along with the Pentecostal sects that began to penetrate Montserrat in the 1940s, are still strong.

Currency

East Caribbean dollar (XCD).

Time Zone

-04:00 GMT.

Government Regime

Parliamentary dependency under a constitutional monarchy.

Climate

Montserrat, has a tropical climate, hot and humid all year round, with a cool and dry season from January to mid-April, and a hot humid, and rainy season from mid-June to mid-November.

From mid-November to early January the temperature decreases a bit and the weather gets better and from mid-April to Mid-June the temperature and the frequency of downpours gradually increase).

The best time to visit Montserrat is from February to April since it's the driest period of the year.

In December and January, there are some additional showers, but it is still the least hot period.

International Phone Code

+1-664

Internet Code

.ms ​ ​

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أشهر الأكلات في مونتسرات

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نبذة عن مونتسرات

أشهر الأماكن السياحية في مونتسرات

عادات و ثقافة مونتسرات