// Thread //

...Carnival (in the Caribbean)

What exactly is 'carnival'?

The modern day English word carnival is believed to come from the Latin term 'Carne vale' which means 'farewell to meat'. Though, sometimes the word meat is translated as 'flesh' making the meaning, 'farewell to flesh' as opposed to 'farewell to meat'

For some, carnival is a period beginning after Epiphany & ends on the day preceding Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday.

Carnival, despite one may think, is of Catholic origin and for this reason, though widely celebrated in the Caribbean, it is not endemic to the Caribbean.

Despite its Catholic origin, there are carnival celebrations which occur throughout other Christian churches.

Anglicans in The Bahamas, for instance, often refer to Shrove Tuesday as Pancake Tuesday where some churches have potlucks & 'celebrants' overindulge in food pre-Lent.

(Shrove Tuesday being the day before Ash Wednesday and, by extension, the day before Lent.)

Catholic traditions, though, were & continue to be much more grandiose. Today, Venice is known for its pre-Lenten Carnival which feature detailed & impressive masks, dating to the 1100s.

Brazil's carnival, a South American country, is actually the largest carnival in the world.

This year, 1.9 million tourists arrived for carnival celebrations, up from 1.7 last year, in Brazil which has about ~65% of all of its Christian citizens identifying as Roman Catholic.

How did Carnival end up in the Caribbean then?

Colonisation. All of the colonial powers of the Caribbean were Catholic, save the English who were Anglican.

The dawn of Colonisation in the Americas, then, also meant the dawn of Christianity in the Americas.

In fact, the oldest Catholic cathedral in all of the Americas is Caribbean, on the island of Hispaniola.

The Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor, found in Santo Domingo, the capital of Domincan Republic, is the oldest of any Catholic cathedral in this hemisphere.

Thus, we see how Catholic traditions, like carnival, found their way into the region.

One may now question, if Anglicans didn't have grand carnival celebrations, and the Anglican church was the church of the English, why is a country like Trinidad & Tobago so renown for it?

While Trinidad & Tobago is an English speaking country today and gained independence from the United Kingdom, it was previously colonised by the Spanish and also saw a large influx of French settlers from nearby Caribbean islands.

When the English permanently seized control...

...many traditions were too well established to be removed from society.

With such a large French presence in an English colony (Google: Cedula of Population), naturally French customs were present.

And so, carnival remained apart of English Trinidad & Tobago's identity.

For this same reason, we see the huge cultural significance of carnival in English speaking countries & former British colonies like Grenada & St. Lucia, for instance (though not celebrated on traditional carnival days, but that's more so about the commercialisation & profits.)

While Barbados' Crop Over may resemble other Caribbean carnivals, it cannot really be considered a true 'carnival' because its origin is more so out of slavery and the celebration of the harvest, as opposed to the Catholic church and the glorification of the flesh.

The same is the case with The Bahamas' junkanoo, Bermuda's gombey or Jamaica's jonkunno which are not of Catholic or Christian origin, but are all of similar/the same West African origin (i.e. a product of slavery).

(Though BAH & JAM both feature carnival iterations now.)

This is not to imply or suggest, though, that slavery had no role in the development of Caribbean carnival. Quite the contrary, actually.

Both slavery & the ethno-diversity of the people of the Caribbean are what make the iterations of Carnival in the Caribbean so unique.

While carnival itself is of Christian origin, the islands where carnival was introduced by Catholic settlers have gone to on to incorporate African & indigenous influences, as well East Asian influences.

In Trinidad & Tobago, the slave tradition of Canboulay helped create...

The elaborate carnival celebration we see held in that country now.

The same is seen with the incorporation of the 'Jab Jab' character in Grenada's carnival who, like Trinidad & Tobago, was not originally an English colony but settled by the French initially.

In Cuba, the incorporation of African culture in carnival celebrations is also seen in both costume in music. Many costumes depict African deities while the music of Carnival incorporates African drums which were brought to the island by way of slavery.

So, if carnival is birthed out of the Church, why is it unlike... what we'd expect (lol) from a church celebration?

Well, if we consider the etymology of Carnival which was mentioned earlier, we can find our answer.

Lent is the most penitent season of the Christian calendar.

The Lenten season, for Christians, is marked with periods of fasting, intense prayer, penitence, self-denial and leads to the holiest week & days of the Christian calendar where we, as Christians, remember the death & suffering of Christ underscoring his divinity for us.

Thus, carnival, saying farewell to meat or flesh, was meant to highlight the period of fasting & penitence that approached.

Essentially, the purpose of carnival is to engage in manners of glorification of the flesh, gluttony, indulgence & self-gratification before giving it up.

Thus, we can now understand the provactivity of some Caribbean carnivals; especially in countries where it was introduced centuries ago & precedes the Lenten season.

For states like Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica who have carnival celebrations now...

The cultural significance is not entirely the same, though incorporation many, if not all, of the staples of the Catholic introduced carnival celebrations found in other countries.

Anyway, you've made it here to the end of another thread. So, what does that make you? A...

and yes, I made up the word 'provactivity'.