J'ouvert
J'ouvert (French pronunciation: [ʒuvɛʁ]) is a large street party during Carnival in the eastern Caribbean region. J'ouvert is a contraction of the French jour ouvert, or dawn/day break.
J'ouvert is celebrated throughout the Caribbean in countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Grenada, The Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. J'ouvert is also celebrated in many places outside the Caribbean as part of Carnival celebrations throughout the year, with the biggest celebrations happening in places around the world with large Caribbean ex-pat communities.
Traditionally, the celebration involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing through the streets. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise.
Carnival was introduced to Trinidad by French settlers in 1783, a time of slavery.[1] Banned from the masquerade balls of the French, the slaves would stage their own mini-carnivals in their backyards — using their own rituals and folklore, but also imitating and sometimes mocking their masters’ behavior at the masquerade balls.[2]
The origins of street parties associated with J'ouvert coincide with the emancipation from slavery in 1838. Emancipation provided Africans with the opportunity, to not only participate in Carnival, but to embrace it as an expression of their newfound freedom. Some theorize that some J'ouvert traditions are carried forward in remembrance of civil disturbances in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil or paint to avoid being recognized.[citation needed]
The traditions of J'ouvert vary widely throughout the Caribbean. In Trinidad & Tobago, a part of the tradition involves smearing paint, mud or oil on the bodies of participants known as "Jab Jabs". On the islands of Dominica, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Haiti, participants celebrate by blowing flutes and conch shells or by beating goat skin drums, irons or bamboo sticks while singing folk songs.
Barbados does not celebrate J'ouvert, but in instead celebrates Foreday Morning which is often mistaken as J'ouvert.
J'ouvert is inseparable from Carnival and has had many influences. People from Africa, Britain, France, India, Spain and many other ethnic groups have all left an indelible mark on J'ouvert.
See also
References
- ↑ "'Mama Dis is Mas': A Historical Overview of the Trinidad Carnival, 1783 – 1900" National Library and Information System Authority
- ↑ "History of Carnival" All Ah We
External links
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2009
- Trinidad and Tobago culture
- Caribbean culture
- Carnivals
- Carnivals in the United States Virgin Islands
- Carnivals in Trinidad and Tobago
- Carnivals in Saint Lucia
- Carnivals in Anguilla
- Carnivals in Aruba
- Carnivals in Antigua and Barbuda
- Carnivals in Grenada
- Carnivals in the Bahamas
- Carnivals in Haiti
- Carnivals in Jamaica
- Carnivals in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Carnivals in Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Carnivals in Sint Maarten
- Carnivals in Dominica
- Carnivals in the British Virgin Islands
