By Amanda Hudson
It’s Carnival Monday 1995 and thousands of scantily clad masqueraders have jammed the hot streets of Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobego. They jump up and wave colorful rags in the air in time to an energetic Calypso beat. Men and women who don’t know each other melt together, their waists gyrating in the sexy, circular motion of a dance called wining. It’s 8:30 in the morning and already revelers are drinking Carib beer to keep cool.
Trinidad and Tobago’s annual Carnival is a wild pre-Lenten festival ruled by a freeness where almost anything goes, It is, as the Trinidadians say, a time to “get on bad:” to let loose and have fun before the traditional Catholic season of lent, a 40 day period of sacrifice.
People of all races: Black, white, asian and everything in between take a break from work, school and other daily stresses to relax and party in the streets, There’s only one rule during Carnival—have fun.
Carnival kicks off at 2 a.m. the Monday morning before Ash Wednesday—this year on February 27th—with “j’ouvert,” French slang for “day opens.” Trinis converge on the streets after a kick-off party to celebrate in the mud. Following tradition, those “playing j’ouvert,” cover themselves with mud and try to dirty up merry-makers who still look clean. J’ouvert festivities last until just after daybreak, when those “playing mas,” those parading in costume (Mas stands for masquerade), take over.
Daytime masquerades dress in skimpy, colorful costumes. Typically, women wear tiny bikinis and men put on shorts. Costumes are sexily decorated with shiny beads, costume jewelry and vibrant sparkles. Intricately created wrist, ankle and head pieces complete the image. The prices of costumes vary according to which “band” you are “jumping up,” or partying with.
A band is a group of masqueraders portraying a specific theme. This year’s Young Harts band presents Superstitions. Masqueraders wear flashy costumes representing various superstitions, such as black cats, pharaohs, copper bands and gems.
Each band has its own “mas camp,” where masqueraders come to choose which section they want to “play” with. A band’s mas camp is where the costumes are designed, assembled and distributed. Each band also provides its own live music and DJs for the masqueraders to dance to.
The Trinidadian calypso group Blue Ventures supplies the music for Young Harts revelers, hot calypsonians singing on top of a slow-moving speaker-laden flat bed truck. Masqueraders flock around the trucks, jauntily following them around the Port of Spain’s narrow streets.
There are no age restrictions for enjoying yourself at Carnival. People young and old join in the nation-wide street party. Children have their own special Kiddies Carnival two days before the grown-ups.
Bruce Aguiton, a 23-year-old Masters student at the University of Waterloo is from Trinidad. While jumping up with Young Harts, wearing a gold and red King Tut-like costume, he says the beauty of Carnival is “The intensity of the people. The ability to go two and a half days straight and always want more on top of that. Jumping up in the hot sun, music blasting, hundreds of thousands of people having fun all around with a little bit of help from alcohol.”
For two days of music plus the costume, playing mas with the Young Harts cost just over $100 Canadian. Beer, rum and traditional foods can all be bought along the parade route—a beer sells for about $1.50 Canadian, soft drinks about fifty cents and a large size roti sells for about $2.50.
All this changing if you’re lucky enough to be visiting family or new-found friends. Trinidadian hospitality is famously warm, friendly and inviting, with an emphasis on sharing their seemingly endless supply of cold drinks and pots full of delicious food.
The world’s biggest street festival is not only a time to drink and forget everyday problems, but also a time of fierce competition. Carnival contests are judged at the stands of the Queen’s Savannah Park, a massive outdoor stadium containing a horse racing track, cricket pitches and numerous football (That’s soccer for North Americans) fields.
Two colossal seating stands in the park face each other and are spearated by a large, white platform where all the Carnival action takes place. Panorama competition is between steel bands. About 120 people are wheeled into the centre of the two stands on huge metallic carts where they beat out popular calypso rhythms on silvery steel pans. The North stand actually rocks as young crowds jump and wine in time to the pan, while the more subdued crowds sits and lounges opposite in the grandstand.
Next, there’s the Calypso Monarch Competition in which calypso greats such as The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener sing calypsos with lyrics based on local events. Black Stalin won this year’s competition with his calypsos. “In Time,” and “Tribute to Sundar Popo.”
Then comes the King and Queen of the Bands contest at “Dimanche Gras,” meaning “big Sunday before Carnival.” Masquerade leaders from the different bands compete in costumes sometimes as high as a two-story house, supported by light aluminium frames on wheels. Competitors dance across the stage, bringing life to their colorful elongated feathers and glimmering sequins.
Tuesday, the last day of competition, is the highlight of the Carnival. Masquerade bands parade their costumes across the Savannah stage, jumping and wining with intense energy, trying to impress the judges in hopes of winning the title of Band of the Year. Prizes are awarded in three band size categories, but the most prestigious title goes to the large band winner.
While taking a sip of rum from a wineskin draped across his shoulder, Aguiton marvels at this year’s Carnival costumes. He shouts over the music that they are “Fantastic. As usual, the creativity, imagination, ingenious use of materials and colors in portraying the visions of the bands—is incredible. Like Peter Marshall’s band Hallelujah. He used all these angels and white colors.”
Peter Marshall is Trinidad’s leading costume designer and winner of this year’s Large Band of the Year title. HIs band Hallelujah portrays the dream of an angel, in which Carnival is the most wonderful celebration of life.
Carnival is a state of mind. When hard to explain the spirit of the Carnival. As one Trini said “When a foreigner asks me about Carnival, I tell them the only way to know what it’s all about is to experience it.”
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