Carnivals of the Caribbean

People tend to think that the Africans and Caribbeans invented the word "Carnival" but its origins stem from religous celebrations in Europe.

These celebrations were for the Lent festival and the word carnival comes from the Latin for "without meat". Catholics believe they should abstain from eating meat at this time. Carnivals then spread to other countries in Europe and as these countries, Spain, France, Portugal etc, headed to the Americas they passed this tradition to the local people in the Caribbean and South America.

Once slavery was introduced to the Americas, the carnivals were influenced by Africa. In Africa villagers would dress in costumes and masks, dancing around the village fires to the sound of drums. Africans also brought stilt dancing, feathers, drum rhythms to the party, changing the meaning of the carnival from religous to more of a celebration ie: Cropover in Barbados is to celebrate the end of the sugar cane harvesting.

There are now many carnivals throughout the Caribbean and South America. See "Caribbean Carnivals" for details of where and when the carnivals are and how you can get involved.

Feathers  introduced to Carnival by Africans 

In the Caribbean carnival is taken very seriously, with each camp working towards being the top band with an award winning production.

If you have ever watched or taken part in a carnival I'm sure you realise just how hard all the members work to be the best and biggest. Especially those wearing the very large costumes, which even though large must be able to let the wearer dance on stage and along the streets.