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‘Carnival is not Cayman!’ Discuss with regard to Pirates
Week and/or Batabano’
University College of the Cayman Islands
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Brittni Ebanks
Summer – 2014
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HIS 120 – CAYMANIAN SOCIETY
“Different)People.)One)Face.)The)Caribbean”)
Understanding of Carnival and Carnival History
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Introduction
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Carnival is an annual celebration of life that is now found in many
countries around the globe. It’s a joyous cultural celebration – with a
mixture of music, dance, and pageantry, rooted in a range of diverse
cultural influences. In fact, by learning more about carnival we can learn
more about ourselves and a lot more about accepting and/or
understanding other cultures.
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HIS 120 – CAYMANIAN SOCIETY
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WHAT IS CARNIVAL
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Carnival originated as a pagan festival in ancient Egypt that was
subsequently celebrated by the Greeks and Romans. The popular festivals
were later adopted by the Roman Catholic Churches in Europe, as the
Festival of “Carnevale”. The word Carnival is made up of two Latin words,
“carne” meaning flesh and “vale” meaning farewell. As time passed, the
Carnivals in Italy became very popular, and sparked the interest of
France, Spain and other Catholic practicing countries in Europe. However,
it wasn’t until the Europeans colonized the Caribbean and the Americas,
that they brought along the tradition of carnival with them during the era
of slave trading from Africa.
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In the late 1780’s, the Caribbean was first introduced to a large
population of Spanish speaking people, which later brought French,
Africans, Chinese and Indians, thus came the tradition of carnival. As the
slave trade began, some of these traditions, like many other traditions in
the Caribbean culture, were creolized as the slaves took different aspects
of the carnival and adapted their own meanings, as well as their own
religious symbolisms to it. Another important aspect to remember about
carnival, is that carnival was also a tool for social and political
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commentary. The salves used it as a moment to resist and to borrow
from the tradition, in the means of criticizing, not only slavery but also
their masters. But mostly, Carnival came as a way of expressing freedom,
even in the context of slavery, which continued to develop through the
Caribbean from centuries in the past, to today.
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After emancipation in 1834, the white planters abandoned the Mardi Gras
Carnival and the streets were taken over by the former slaves. Carnival
was now a celebration of the end of slavery and embraced a variety of
different elements including a masquerade that mocked the antics of
their former masters, as well as being a reminder of the evils of slavery.
During this time, there were many attempts by the British colonial
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authorities to suppress and abolish this new type of Carnival. These
attempts took the form of dangerous media campaigns and laws that
tried to control the times of the festivals. Licenses were then required for
certain masquerades, they banned the use of drums and flambeaux and
even controlled the numbers of stick fighters that participated in the
Carnival. The people struggled, fought and died to defend their Carnival
festival. A famous victory was the defeat of a Captain Baker which the
special police brought to the island from England to suppress the
Carnival in Trinidad Carnival in 1881. These Canboulay riots established
the existence and survival of Carnival forever.
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