Before we arrived in Grenada we thought that Carnival was a glittery parade or two through town and that was it

– how wrong we were!

A series of events led up to the parades and the whole island was gripped with carnival fever, it was difficult not to get caught up in it all. It's difficult to describe how incredible it was and the fun we had.   And like all of these things there is more to it than you first think.

So for those who are interested a quick history and language lesson!

Carnival originated in Southern Europe with the mid-winter Roman feast of Saturnalia and developed during the Middle Ages into the Feast of Fools during which some aspects of the Catholic Church were scurrilously mocked. The Church tried and failed to suppress it and when failing used its usual tactic and incorporated it into one of the religious festivals. This time the closest in date was Lent and it became the final binge before fasting.

'Carne Vale' means farewell to flesh.

The original Caribbean carnival was introduced to Trinidad by the French in the eighteenth century and was initially a sedate affair of masked balls enjoyed by the white Creole gentry.

However the slaves also celebrated carnival in semi-secret on the plantations becoming more open after emancipation in 1834. The costumes often satirised the affectations of their former owners as well as introducing characters from West African tradition and folklore. The British disapproved of what they saw as the desecration of the Sabbath, traditionally the first day of Carnival, and said that festivities could not start until Monday morning. Sticking to the letter of the law the revelers kicked off on the stroke of midnight with a wild procession known as ‘Jouvert' which continues to this day. This is the wildest and most irreverent parade of carnival.

History lesson over some key words for Carnival:

Jab jab - a West African demon

Moko jumbie – a stilt walking creature from folklore

Bands – not musical but a collection of costumed masqueraders

Chipping – slow, shuffling walk with a rhythm dictated by the music from the trucks

Jump up – to dance in the parade for a while before ‘falling out' when you've had enough

Mas – short for masquerade

Mas camp – the headquarters of a band and where all the costumes are made

Ol' mas – traditional carnival characters such as jab jabs and sailors

Road march – the calypso or soca song played most during carnival

Wining – as described in previous e-mails a sought of hip grinding – impossible for white people to do well but we tried!

Okay. Carnival gets underway just before the weekend with several competitions. The most popular are the steel bands ‘Panorama' and the fiercely fought Soca monarch. Soca is a fast calypso, addictive to listen to and the main half a dozen heard constantly throughout Carnival wherever you are.

 

The one played most becomes the ‘Road March' and from listening we think it was ‘Block de Road' which is now our mobile phone ring tone. Andrew managed to record most of them and we practiced our wining and chipping – not easy on a moving boat!

Sunday during the day is fairly quiet and lulls you into a false sense of peace. We went for an explore around St. Georges on Sunday and were amazed at the amount of businesses that were boarding up windows including petrol stations and the newly refurbished parliament building. Monday morning we found out why! Jouvert (locally pronounced jouvay) starts in the early hours of Monday morning and is the darkest of the carnival parades.

Historically to prevent recognition the participants cover themselves with mud, paint and old oil and this still happens. Their task is to cover as many people as possible with the paint and oil that they carry in bottles as they parade around town. This goes on until daybreak or exhaustion whichever comes first. We ventured into town about ten a.m. and there were still some stragglers on the beach and in the sea – the easiest way to wash.

The town looked like it had held the mother of all paint ball games.

 

Monday is the first of the Carnival parades of the type we would recognise and is for judging the costumes. The mas bands have a short parade to ‘ Carnival City '. Each group is preceded with its own sound system on a truck. And these are LOUD. The most speakers we saw on one flatbed was twenty six plus an electric generator. They have their own D.J on board mixing the soca hits and a platform over the top of all the speakers with a mas leader urging the bands on to keep performing. Age is no barrier and we saw small tots to octogenarians chipping and wining.   Their energy and enthusiasm was incredible even more so when the temperature was in the eighties.

And then on Tuesday they do it all again.

This time the parade is even longer as it goes all around the town of St.Georges , approximately six hours. Some of the costumes are so heavy and unwieldy that people work a shift system.

The Tuesday parade has the winner from the steel band competition in it. Some play from the back of a truck whilst others walk round in specially designed ‘cages' on wheels which are pushed and pulled by volunteers, bear in mind that St.Georges is built on a hill! Some spectators follow the parade while others dip in and out of the bands having a quick wine or shuffle.

 

There was a contingent of Japanese tourists who would rush into the middle of a group to pose with one of the Carnival Queens bringing the whole thing to a halt. But no one seemed to mind and there were smiles and laughs all round.  

The Grenada mas bands try to keep to more traditional costumes although there was a fair contingent of ‘bikini mas'. Even within one band there will be more than one style. The sailor band, which won this year, had at least eight different styles.

There were two or three jab jab groups and they had quite scary mesh masks on. Most of them were collecting money and if you refused you got a dousing from the talcum powder they carried.  

There was a group all dressed in black with skeleton masks. They had boots built up on wooden platforms and stomped around town. Even in bright sunshine they were a little unnerving.

 

As you can imagine we took dozens of photographs and have putting a Carnival Special on the web album.

Warm regards

Sharon & Andrew