All about carnival

Since my last blog about my disappointment with the costume offering of Brian Mac Farlane, I realized that some of my blogging friends had some questions about carnival and the whole mas thing, so since I love to write about carnival I thought I would post this today, not to mention I was over at the in-laws this weekend and I took my laptop and worked on it in my spare time.

Carnival is a season, just like Christmas is a season, the Carnival Season begins just at the end of Christmas. Carnival Monday and Tuesday is the culmination of the Carnival Season and is always the Monday and Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday (usually between Feb and March of the year)

Carnival is not only about prancing in the streets in your costume, there are many activities and competitions that are spaced out over the carnival season.

These activities and competitions are cultural in nature, there is the steel pan competition called ‘panorama’ (steel pan or drum is our national instrument and the only musical instrument invented in the last 100+ years) and the calypso competition which takes two forms, one for traditional calypsos and one for the more modern upbeat version called ‘soca’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xETyczXqVM or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFE2xIukL3Q.

This is a video of our steel pan being played:



Children also take part in carnival, in fact, the kids get to play mas on more days than the adults! They actually have 2 weekends to play mas, on both days of the weekend too! The children can play mas as part of their school band or they can play with a children’s carnival band that is open to children from all over the world! The children’s costumes are usually much more lovely and creative than the adults, and much more entertaining to view! Here are some samples of this year’s offering of children’s costumes for this year.

These three costumes are from a designer who decided to create an all white children's band this year! I wish him luck with a bunch of bratties in all white! lol!! I think they are beautiful though!

These four above are from a very popular children costume designer and this year her theme is National Pride, the names of all the costumes are actually words taken from our national anthem.

The biggest night in Carnival is the competition called ‘Dimanche Gras’ which when loosely translated means ‘Big Sunday’. Dimanche gras consists of the finals of many different competitions, like King and Queen of Carnival – These are huge costumes worn by individuals. These costumes are the leaders of different carnival bands and are very beautiful and creative.

Another competition that is judged on Dimanche Gras night is the Calypso competition, this is greatly anticipated because it is usually made up of either pro or anti government calypsos that are very witty.

Following Dimanche Gras is ‘Jouvert’ this is the start of the street party, this is where it is legal to take over the streets of our capital city of Port of Spain, follow music trucks and dance to your heart’s delight. Jouvert begins at 4:30 am. The costumes worn during Jouvert are usually very casual in nature , and very very funny. Some men wear shortie nighties, some wear chamber pots or ‘posies’ on their head, adults walk around with pacifiers in their mouths and baby bottles filled with alcohol. Some dress like our politicians with placards portraying the latest dumb thing they did or said in recent times. This type of mass is called ‘ole (old) mass’ some people just love it because you avoid the hot sun, and the costumes are of course not as formal and fussy, you can put on a cut off jeans and tee shirt, cover your self with mud, yes mud! And have a great time! Oh yes mud mas is a great part of jouvert and even made it’s way into the Monday mas as well. Mud can be mud colored or blue as seen below, the blue mud wearers are known as 'blue devils'.

The mas I play is called pretty mas and takes place on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. You go to the different mas camps or peruse them on line and choose a costume, pay for it and you collect it about a week before carnival Monday.

And as you may know, I am not impressed with Mac Farlane's offering this year, my views on that are expressed here for those of you who may have missed that post. Oh! And an important point! The prices seen for these costumes are quoted in Trinidad and Tobago dollars, so that all prices should be divided by six to get the US price.

But I digress, so the package you get when you pay for your costume is your Carnival Monday usually consists of your Monday outfit, which can be anything from a Tee shirt and a hat, you can wear Jeans or tights or what ever you want with your tee shirt, or you may get a few yards of white sheer material (voile) that you can wrap in any way you want about your body. Apart from that you get some sample size toiletries and sunbloc. Of course the price includes two meals on Carnival Monday and Three meals on Carnival Tuesday as well as drinks and water for the entire day.

Carnival Monday is the really fun day, there is no worry of a fancy costume and head pieces, its just you the music, the road, the people, the drinks, the music and of course the music!!

My sisters and I in our Carnival Monday wear!

Your costume package of course will have your full costume as well, which you wear only on carnival Tuesday. However when Tuesday comes, you are exhausted from Monday! You wake up and your feet aches, your calves ache, and you may have a slight hangover, I always have to drive home after so I don’t drink any alcohol on the days, if I do, it is hours before I have to drive home. In spite of all the exhaustion, what gets you going is taking a look at your costume that you have hanging in your bedroom for more that a week! Oh! You jump out of bed, hit the shower, have a HUGE breakfast and brush your teeth and put on your make up.

Applying make up is sooooo much fun for carnival! You get to wear eye shadows in colors that would not usually be worn! You can choose colors that compliment your costume and just experiment and have great fun! Of course a few days before I experiment on my carnival make up and put on my head piece! So that by Carnival Tuesday I know what colors I want to wear!

I hope this gives an idea into Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival and how the whole thing works. Of course there is debate on whether or not the costumes are overpriced and in many cases they are, in many instances the band leaders are laughing all the way to the bank as they take advantage of persons wishing to take part in something that is part of their national heritage.

If your band wins the ‘band of the year’ title the money goes to the Band Leader and not a penny goes to the masquerader, however they contend that costumes are expensive to produce, the music trucks are expensive as well and there are other costs like security for the band, an ambulance that follows the band and other logistics. I still have not chosen my costume yet but I still have time, Carnival Monday and Tuesday will be on February 23 & 24th 2009.
My next carnival post will be about accessorizing your costume and more on Carnival Tuesday!