J'ouvert

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J'ouvert ( dʒuveɪ ) are large street festivals that are held annually as part of the Carnival on numerous Caribbean islands (mainly the Lesser Antilles ).

J'ouvert is a derivative of the Antilles Creole term jou ouvè , which in turn is derived from the French term jour ouvert (literally "open day" in the figurative sense "daybreak"), as the festival usually begins at this time.

history

J'ouvert is celebrated in many Caribbean countries and is also often celebrated by emigrants abroad, for example in New York and at the Notting Hill Carnival in London .

Traditionally, the festival is accompanied by calypso and soca bands and the participants dance through the streets. The festival starts long before daylight and peaks a few hours after sunrise.

Carnival was introduced to Trinidad by settlers of French descent from 1783 . In 1783, Spain, at that time the island's colonial power, issued an edict that made land on Trinidad available to Catholic settlers free of charge in order to boost the economy of the sparsely populated islands. Settlers from the French colonies in the Caribbean soon made up the majority of the population in Trinidad. Their slaves, excluded from the French masters ' costume balls , celebrated their own mini-carnivals and mixed them with their own rituals and folklore , although they usually imitated their masters and sometimes satirized their masters' behavior at the bals masqués .

The origins of the street festivals associated with J'ouvert go back to the liberation of slaves ( emancipation ) in 1838. The liberation of slaves gave the Africans not only the freedom to take part in the carnival, but also the opportunity to design it as an expression of their newly found freedom. There are theories that some J'ouvert traditions go back to events during uprisings in Port of Spain , Trinidad, when the fighters smeared themselves with oil or paint in order not to be recognized.

The traditions of the J'ouvert vary greatly in the different countries of the Caribbean. In Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada it is part of the job to smear yourself with paint, clay or oil. The participants prepared in this way are called “jab jabs” in the Grenadian carnival.

In other countries, J'ouvert is celebrated on August 1st (Emanicipation Day), or in the West Indies the night before the parade of “Pretty Mas” is celebrated. Pretty Mas - a more festive version of the festivities - is usually celebrated with colorful costumes adorned with feathers ( transcendent glitter ) and is used more commercially. J'ouvert, on the other hand, highlights the value of transgressive filth.

In Barbados , J'ouvert is not celebrated, but Foreday Morning .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lise Winer: Dictionary of the English / Creole of Trinidad & Tobago . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal 2009, ISBN 978-0-7735-3406-3 , pp. 473 .
  2. ^ R. Allsopp: Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage. Oxford University Press, Kingston 1996. ISBN 0-198-66152-5
  3. ↑ J'Ouvert Parade . Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  4. ↑ In pictures: Fifty years of the Notting Hill Carnival . BBC News. August 28, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  5. ↑ Barbara Ehrenreich: Up Close at Trinidad's Carnival . February 1, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Mama Dis is Mas" . National Library and Information System Authority. December 15, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  7. ^ Rita Pemberton: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . New ed.Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2018, ISBN 978-1-5381-1145-1 , pp. 73 .
  8. ^ History of Carnival . Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  9. ↑ A Carnival Theme Rooted in our Traditions by Dr. Nicole Phillip . August 18, 2011. Accessed September 1, 2019.
  10. ↑ Nai-Whedai Sheriff: J'ouvert Speaks to the Present . In: Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship . World Dance Alliance. 2014. Accessed September 1, 2019.
  11. ^ Tara Donaldson: How to Do Barbados Crop Over Like a Local. The Huffington Post , August 11, 2014.