CARNIVAL
In Trinidad & Tobago - WI		 Back to Ref: Carnival

Where...

   A nation parties and flirts with horizontal integration to enjoy excessive expressions of colour, dance, song, music and sound; in an evolved 250 year tradition that is virtually unparalleled elsewhere! Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago is a whole Nation in Heat.

   ...Calypso Tents, Fetes, Mas’ Camps, Ol’ Mas’, Steelbands, Panyards, Panorama, The ‘Runway’, Dimanche Gras, Kings and Queen of the Bands, The demonstrable Nort’ Stan’, Nite Mas’, J’Ouvert, Jab Jab, Jab Molassi, Moco Jumbie, The Canboulay or Carnival, Fireman dance, Big Trucks, Iron, Ol’ Sailor bands, Mas’ bands, Zanté in Stick fight, Eat, Drink, Love and be Merry, then Las Lap...?

   Through the strongly evolving muli-cultural arena of song presentations; the nation will unravel its choice towards finding the seasons ‘Monarchs’ in such genres as:

   Calypso, Kaiso, Extempo, Soca, Power Soca, Groovy Soca, Chutney and Chutney Soca; with Gospalypso, Ragga Soca and Rapso gone to the sidelines.

   Since 1963, the carnival date of its post-Independence inception, the steelbands themselves vie for premiership in the TT National Steelband Panorama (Formally Pan-O-Rama) competitions each carnival season. Since its divestment into three Convention steelband catagories in 2004; bragging rights have now increased to include winners of some 55 Small, 28 Medium and 15 Large steelband from their respective conventional categories. The traditional 'pan round the neck' steelbands, called Single Pan Steelbands from 1998, or SPB's for short and about 66 in number, also sport their own Panorama champion for each carnival season. (Figures 2014)

   Carnival, is a monolith of which the steelbands are only a part. Try these links to sites whose speciality is about this living topic.

Discover Trinidad and Tobago - Carnival
http://www.discover-tt.net/carnival.html
TIDCO's Carnival
http://www.visitTNT.com/Carnival1999/
Carnival as described by Dr Patricia Tamara Alleyne-Dettmers
Discriptive terms of the Real Thing - with an authoritative UK bias
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/9748/
 
To Find out When is the next Carnival Try:
Carnival Dates 1826 to 2124 from The Carnival Dates Project on Tobago Org.
http://www.seetobago.org/tandt/carnival/dates/index.htm#2020b

   It would take a library to fully describe the meaning of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago. It would be better that you were here to find out!

   To say that Carnival is a festival of masquerade that takes place in the streets on the Monday and Tuesday before the Lenten fastings begin on Ash Wednesday; would be the most trivial description ever made on the subject.

   Some persons compare Trinidad and Tobago carnival to that in the streets of Rio de Janerio in Brazil, or the Mardi Gras of New Orleans in the USA.

   On this they are close; but not that close.

[This reference is a matter of research for these pages]
http://www.seetobago.org/trinidad/pan/carniv1.htm

  tobagojo@gmail.com - © 1998: www.seetobago.org - 1m20071228 - 2m20140615
19980110 - Historic Update: 23 July 2001; Last Update: 12 March 2015 13:33:00 TT
Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry		 Back to Ref: Carnival