Carnival

Week 46 : Notes

Carnival’s origin lies is a Christian festive season before Lent. Traditionally it is celebrated in countries with a large Catholic presence with parades, street parties and sometimes religious services. Masked figures with wondrous costume may people the streets accompanied by live music.

In February 2020 Lilly Singh, Canadian comedian, talk show host, actress and youtuber prepares for what might have been the last Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago for some time. These two main islands of the Caribbean Republic of Trinidad and Tobago have exported their carnival to places like Toronto, Miami or London, where for two days in August, one of the largest street festivals in the world, is celebrated.

The highpoint of New Orleans’ famous carnival is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the fasting of the Lenten season. Resa “Cinnamon Black” Bazile talks about the Baby Doll tradition in Mardi Gras before we see them dancing down the streets as do the members of The Lady Buckjumpers Social Aid & Pleasure Club, one of many all-female Social Clubs in the uptown district of New Orleans. While Mardi Gras processions are the best known, for locals, it’s all about the second line, which fill the streets with dancing and live brass bands every Sunday, ten months out of the year. Tahj Williams, a student at Tulane University, USA sees herself as a role model for young women that take part in the tradition of masking as Mardi Gras Indians, African Americans who form “tribes” that hold weekly practices and march through the streets on Mardi Gras Day in their elaborately hand-beaded and feathered costumes.

Next stop is the Carnival of Ponce in Puerto Rico, said to be the oldest of the Western Hemisphere, dating back to at least 1858. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is an archipelago among the Greater Antilles in Caribbean and an unincorporated territory of the United States. The one week long festivities end with the Burial of the Sardine and a song. But before we join in – The Carnival is dead now -They are burying him – Throw just a little dirt in -So he can rise again, – we visit the Carnival of Oruro, a Bolivian religious and cultural festival culminating in parades with 28,000 dancers, about 10,000 musicians in 150 bands.

After all this masking, marching and dancing, you might want to sit back, relax and have a cup of tea.