My Story of Carnival
ONE RADIO announcer describing the Carnival Village set up this year said: "Carnival spirit was missing from the Carnival Village. That's a shame." Seems she's something of a seer.
Carnival 2019 came in with kind of a bang, but many whimpered and opted to stay at home, rather than fork out thousands for a costume, a plane ticket and hotel accommodation, or to even pay the cost to stay hydrated during the days when you could throng the street and "see mas'."
Funny to know that while many a die-hard Carnival-baby stayed in house this year, my commitment to blogging sent me out onto the streets ... something I just don't do by choice at this festive time.
A buck for bucking Carnival
I'm kidding!
I bet some of you are thinking (and I've heard this a heap, too): "But if you never played mas' what do you know?"
I never played, true, but I have seen, I have been in the middle of it, I have covered it. I used to be a journalist, remember.
More than that, however, is I felt Carnival ... at a cellular level, a socio-spiritual level. There was something on the breeze, some energy lifting the hair of your pores, some force of creative, thundering power that would surge on the very air the way the world feels changed before a hurricane hits.
It used to be that when Carnival was coming, you'd know it in your gut.
I know it wasn't just me feeling so.
Carnival is not just the playing mas' part to me. It is not just that to many people. And, ironically, that may be the very reason that some of those same people opted out of the revelry this year.
I mean, what is there to celebrate if you feel that something vital and wonderful is dying?
People here argue whether Carnival or Christmas is the most beloved festive time in TnT. That's appropriate, because all the things that people list as to why Christmas has lost much of its magic and meaning are the self-same ones that can be put forward for what has sapped Mas' of its purpose and pizzazz.
I'm not writing a dissertation, okay, so I'll just say this: Carnival, as it came to be associated with Trinidad and Tobago as "the Greatest Show on Earth," was not focused on what today's Carnival movers and shakers (so-called) are after.
Jammin' stilled
It was not for the sake of selling costumes; but for donning costumes, so to be able to walk naked in the world, unburdened by class, colour, fears, feelings of powerlessness.
It was not created so the Haves could do at this time what they do every day, rain or shine, all through the year: which is to basically exclude and manipulate the masses for their own gain.
It was manifested as a way for the Have-nots, the grassroots, the regular folk to transform into fearsome characters of might: from dragons, to devils, to Midnight Robbers and the awesome, awe-some rest.
With magic this old and powerful, of course traces remain to this day; with modern champions true to the cause trying, trying, trying all how, all now.
But, if we are to truly keep Carnival living and breathing as something of worth and weight, this is the most important thing to remember: Carnival is storytelling.
All storytelling is what keeps a culture alive for future generations. All storytelling is what records a culture to truly share it with others outside of itself.
To that end, I am devoting this entire month's blogging to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival storytelling with words and images, highlighting today and yesteryear, sharing the evolution and the history.
I never played mas'. But deeper than many Trini-folk who have played, I, Jhaye-Q Baptiste, 💓❤💗 Trinbago Carnival.
Shine on
Photo by Jhaye-Q: Carnival is for sharing the love; Kiddies Carnival 2018
For more Carnival is Storytelling photos and true Trini vibes, click on the link below
Jhaye-Q Trinbago
