Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Trini Tuesday-Ah no wuk fuh Carnival!!

Fastnacht Day where I grew up, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Carnival in Trinidad!!!

This is one time where I will follow Susie's philosophy of fewer words and more pictures.

Carnival officially opens on Monday, though the partying starts well before that. In the wee hours, J'ouvert (Zhoo-VAY) takes place. Festivities are opened with a parade of mud or oil covered revellers. They cut eerie figures in the first rays of morning light as they evoke thoughts of primal beginnings. Mud is free and allows anyone, poor or rich to engage in the bacchanal before the day gives way to the brightly colored mas bands in their expensive and ornate finery.
jouvert


Monday and Tuesday give way to parades of mas (masquerade) bands. Months have been spent preparing costumes for the hordes of people who will join marching and dancing along the street to the biggest calypso and soca hits of the season.
carnival

Stilted moka jumbies walk along.
jumbies

Tuesday will be the final competitions to crown the Queens...
TriniCarnqueen

And the Kings.
Minshall_Kostum

Happy Carnival all yuh!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow... beautiful pictures! An interesting post!

Izzy said...

One of my goals is to make it to Carnival with my friend who grew up in Trinidad and to Mardi Gras with anyone who'll come with me !! Thanks for sharing the pictures hun. It's a dreary day here and they brightened my morning.

xxx

CozyMama said...

wow, amazing pics!!!!!

S said...

Awesome photo essay! I love that beautiful blue feathered costume!
Are you sure you didn't take theses pictures at Burning Man? :P
Happy Fastnacht, Lime!

Anonymous said...

Keeping with the theme...
AWESOME!

Bsoholic said...

Sweet! Looks like fun!

James Goodman said...

That looks like a great time! Happy Carnival to you as well.

The Village Idiot said...

So mud or costumed finery? which is it..and happy carnival!@

Stephanie said...

Wow -- great pics!!!

Happy Carnival!!!

Sheri said...

wow - amazing pictures. The mud-thing looks awesome and the rest looks like a grand time too!

Jericho said...

just wanted you to know, belatedly as it may be, that I have all 4 of my wisdom teeth, too... i grew having to perform a trick for my treat... adore your commitment to RIF... laughed out loud at the prehistoric porn, pick-up lines... i took one of your "friends" quizzes... and i am extremely ocd in my loading of the dishwasher ... perhaps more important than all that: i love the trinidadian history and culture lessons :)

TLP said...

Fabulous photos! Wonderful post!

Happy Fat Tuesday. I've had too many Fastnachts today. I'll have to excercise hard tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks for sharing these pictures, I love the mud covered look and your narration explains a lot of the customs.
You do such a great job of placing us in a time and place.
Love it.

Tc

Robin said...

Wow... what an amazing place to be. I have some envy here!

The Zombieslayer said...

Yo Lime! Just dropping by. My brain's fried, so I'm taking a break from work.

I soooo badly want to go to Carnival there. I heard they're wild. Thanks for posting the pics.