Did You Know

Interesting Facts about Haiti

Trivia, oddities, and curious tidbits about Haiti.

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12 curious facts about Haiti.

When a child loses a tooth they throw the tooth on the roof and say “Rat, Rat, Rat. I give you a beautiful tooth. Send me back an old tooth.” They say the opposite of wht they really mean to trick the crafty Rat into giving them what they really want.
Haiti is the name given to the land by the former Taino-Arawak peoples, an indigenous group who originally inhabited the island. It means “mountainous country.”
The eccentric Henri Christophe ruled northern Haiti between 1806 and 1820. He ordered the construction of the Citadelle Laferrière and other fortresses as a defence against possible re-invasions of Haiti by the French, but these never occurred.
Haiti is a densely populated country, with an average of more than 250 people per square kilometre. About three-quarters of the people live in rural areas. City life is limited to the capital city (Port-au-Prince) and five or six large towns.

Haiti has a small population of Middle Eastern origin, the descendants of traders from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine who settled in Haiti and other Caribbean nations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Soccer is popular with both sexes in Haiti. There are national men's and women's soccer teams.
Although Haiti has a population of more than 7 million, there are only about 650 physicians in the country.
Haiti is home to the famous Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which trains medical specialists in tropical diseases.
For many years, education in Haiti was delivered in French, even though only 10% of the population spoke the language. Today, education is delivered in both Creole and French.
As a result of the swine fever epidemic in the late 1970s, all the pigs on the island had to be slaughtered. Chicken replaced pork as the most widely consumed meat in Haiti.