Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 21, 2015 Editorial
This is carnival season, even if carnival is the street fete and parade by which Trinidad’s celebration is named. There is the Brazil carnival which attracts thousands from all over the world. Someone once said that it is the most colourful spectacle in the world.
Then there are similar events in Haiti, St Kitts, New Orleans in the United States, Trinidad of course, and Guyana. These festivities see people donning costumes and parading through the streets. It goes without saying that alcohol helps to fuel the spirit on the streets so there is often liberation of minds and spirit that causes people to do more than they normally would.
In Guyana, Trinidad, and Brazil, the main feature is the women who don skimpy garments and lead the gyrations that one visitor once described as the closest thing to sex with clothes on. Thousands, if not millions would leave their homes to be a part of the spectacle which in Brazil and Trinidad is extended over two days.
In Trinidad, a study showed that many of the births could be traced to the carnival season. This would suggest that more than minds and spirits are liberated. We have not seen a study on births in Brazil but certainly investigation would reveal more than a casual link.
These street parades are once a year spectacles; people save up money, energy and spirit for this grand occasion which signals so many things. In Brazil and Trinidad, the carnival is the precursor to the Lenten season when people of Christian faith abstain from those things that they like the most. It is their way of making sacrifices and people have often wondered why, if these people could go without whatever they chose to sacrifice, should they return to those very things.
People have given up cigarettes and alcohol. The more dedicated have even abstained from sex for the duration of the Lenten season. It is this drive for abstinence that allows or perhaps motivates people to do all that they could before Ash Wednesday.
These carnivals date back to more than a century. One must admit that the costumes and what happens in the parade have changed as societal norms appeared to be modified more in favour of individual preference. This has seen criticisms from the more morally severe in the societies. Because of the size of the city and the all-embracing nature of the carnival parade, there is not much by way of criticism from the wider society.
It is the same in Trinidad where people are more likely to decry the participants of national leaders in the street jam. In Guyana, however, where the street festival is relatively new and where many people still hold on to societal norms, one hears of the vulgarity in the parade.
In fact, scarcely a year goes by without there being some caustic comment, many stopping short of calling for a ban on the Mashramani parade. As is the case in every carnival all over the world, the parade is about costume and gyrations and lusty performances designed to entertain the spectators.
More recently, there have been religious groups participating in the street parades and the organisers have done well to insulate these groups from the more bawdy aspects of the parade. The religious groups would lead the parade to the sound of music and they do dance, minus the gyrations that have come to characterize the carnivals.
There are also the Chinese who are culturally different. For one, the rhythms that infuse this corner of the world are foreign to the Chinese ear. The rhythm is also different so the Chinese bring a new flair to the proceedings with their dragons and their flame dance. But it is the rest of the parade that causes criticisms.
There are people who contend that the lascivious movements do nothing but corrupt the minds of children and entice the sick minds in the crowd. However, the parades will be what they are because any move to restrict the dancers would spell doom for any carnival event.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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