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What
is carnival?
It is an annual celebration of life found in many countries of the
world. And in fact, by learning more about carnival we can learn more
about ourselves and a lot about accepting and understanding other
cultures.
Carnival in the
Caribbean, its the biggest outpouring of energy and
creativity ever witnessed. You see the colors, feel the rhythm, smell the food, taste the excitement, and live
the experience. The long-running party probably began with the feast
before the fast of Lent, preceding the significant date of Easter in the Christian calendar. Caribbean Carnival is far
more than two days of masquerading. It's a whole explosive: season in
itself. And the seeds of brilliance that blossom during that season have been germinating in
 the minds
of designers, composers and panmen.
But at the heart of Carnival is the idea of masquerade and
dressing up. Wearing masks and adorning ourselves with brilliant, colorful outfits allows us to connect
with something deeply spiritual. Fuelled by excitement and passion, we celebrate what it is to be human
and alive.
Enjoy our music and dance, from
jazz, soul, reggae, calypso
and soca. Musicians play for audiences and for themselves. Walk into a bar and you could find one
of the Caribbean’s top reggae or soca bands jamming with the people. Walk anywhere and you will find
someone to dance with, someone to party with, someone to celebrate Carnival with.
Visit The Caribbean Islands and witness a
culture
preparing to celebrate itself. Songs are pouring from recording studios and being performed nightly in
Calypso tents. Costumes by the thousand are being stitched. The process of turning more than a hundred
pannists into a single, giant unit is underway. Parties, or 'fetes', are too numerous to mention.
Visitors to the Caribbean can wander into this exciting time and learn at first hand what makes
Caribbean Carnival the Greatest Show on Earth! A wild claim, you may say. Yet it is the Caribbean Carnival
that has been imitated across the world, there are more than 100 Caribbean-style carnivals
around the world, spread over most of the year, from February (Trinidad, St. Lucia, Dominican Republic,
Haiti) through April/May (Jamaica and Miami) to the summer Carnivals in August and the northern
carnivals at the end of summer (Toronto, England and New York.
Come to think of
it, you could move on from one
island to the other and have a vacation of non-stop Carnival. Then finish the Carnival season in New
York .One popular
Caribbean festival in New York is "The
Brooklyn Labor Day Festival"!
This event takes place on Eastern parkway, Brooklyn. This festival has gained a reputation among
enthusiasts as the premier New York festival of the Caribbean. Legendary
musicians flock to New York each September for a day of celebration
during the labor day weekend. Labor Day Weekend is the most extravagant
celebration in New York. For two days and nights, the people come alive
with Calypso music and dancing in the streets. A grand parade of
colorful costumes winds down Eastern Parkway, calypsonians vie for the
King Title, and beauty contests and children's parades round out the
activities.
At Carnival
time, something extraordinary occurs. Barriers fall. Rank ceases to
matter. Something more fundamental and important suffuses the air. It is a recognition of the human
need to recreate. To play. To suspend the superficial world of commerce, gossip and politics for a
time, and let deeper values predominate.
Caribbean Carnival's exists for you the individual to
experience and enjoy. Carnival is in our smiles, in the way we
move, in our soul. Anywhere you go in the Caribbean, you are likely to find
a celebration. There
is only one rule – enjoy yourself. For those who take the Carnival plunge, it
is an opportunity to learn and enjoy our culture. There is no experience on earth to compare with a
Caribbean Carnival.
Uniting the World
The Caribbean Carnival offers all of us a dynamic tool for self-expression and
exploration, a tool to seek out our roots, a tool to develop new forms
of looking at the world and its cultures, and finally, a tool to unite
the world, to discover what we all have in common, and to celebrate what
makes us different. The power and creativity that underlies these art
forms can transform lives. Join hands with All Ah We, and together we
will dance the song of life!
Have A Good Lime!
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