Carnival time is always something to look forward to on Carriacou. It is celebrated in February, the weekend before Ash Wednesday, on the island and is characterised by an explosion of colour and noise in which everyone on Carriacou and neighbouring islands makes a contribution in one form or another.
The history of carnival is interesting, and involves aspects of the Caribbean’s colonial past. It originated as a mimicking of life on the plantations.
The characteristic use of masks in the celebrations helped overcome racial barriers so that all elements in society could participate without feeling the pressure of expected stereotypical behaviour. In that respect Carnival time acted as a pressure valve on an otherwise rigidly stratified society, in the same way as the annual Feast of Fools in medieval times did.
Other survivals from colonial times include the ‘Pierrots’ which originated with disguised entertainers when the French controlled the island, and the ceremony of Can-boulay (‘burning wood’) on Sunday night, which echoes the burning of cornstalks as night illumination.
In fact, the Carnival sprang from such a hotchpotch of diverse influences and contained so much riotous colour, noise and often downright debauchery that it was widely assumed to be a pagan celebration, especially as it included a Jab-Jab or devil figure that asked for money to buy its freedom from enchained slavery.
One curious aspect of the festival these days is the Shakespeare Mas, in which bands of roving literati from the various villages compete in reciting passages from Shakespeare on the Tuesday morning of the Carnival. Despite sounding like a sketch from Monty Python, this is a serious competition and has its own rituals and codes of conduct. Two competitors face each other like duellists, and one recites whilst his opposite number listens. The whole event is curiously compelling, with the elaborate costumes of flowing, brightly-coloured robes and voluminous head-gear adding to the theatricality, and padding that produces a loud noise when whacked by the listener’s stick due to missed lines or hesitant delivery.
Part of the formalities of the Shakespeare Mas is the periodic consumption of rum as the competing troops start off from Mt Royal and make their way down to Hillsborough for the culmination, competing at villages along the way.
Despite the anachronistic setting, there’s something authentically Shakespearean about the competition that you’re unlikely to find even at the London Globe.
All the world’s certainly a stage during the Carriacou Carnival.
Other events of the carnival include the obligatory calypso competition – Dimarche Gras – which goes on most of Sunday night, and Jouvert Morning the following day when hundreds of revellers pour onto the streets to dance and sing, including the devilishly exotic Jab-Jab. The Parade of Bands is especially lively and colourful, with soca music providing the rhythmic backdrop to a riot of brilliant Mas Player costumes.
It’s all over by Tuesday, but the Carriacou Carnival packs such a lot in to a few days that it’ll probably keep you going for the rest of the year, and Shakespeare will never seem quite the same again!