Revellers in Trinidad & Tobago Carnival

The Carnival Season is in its peak with a High participation of Jamaicans for the 2006 festivities.

Every year more and more Jamaicans attend this cultural celebration of the Trinidadian people and this year is no different. The Bacchanal Jamaica are among the regular Trinidad revelers, not only for the fun, but also to bring back ideas and authentic customs to adopt into the Jamaican carnival season as they seek a greater level of cultural integration for carnival in Jamaica. Not only do the lovers of carnival attend, but Jamaicans from several walks of life who wish to experience another culture similar to our own are also frequenting the carnival festivities in Trinidad well.

National carrier Air Jamaica is running a special carnival charter to the twin-island republic leaving Wednesday, February 22nd and returning Wednesday, March 1st. The implementation of a charter flight and the more readily available information from our local mass media has helped to fuel this trend.

In Trinidad and Tobago, carnival is officially the two days before Ash Wednesday - starting at approximately 4am on Monday morning, this year it falls on February 28th and 29th
The carnival season unofficially begins in October with the launches of the masquerade bands (mas bands) costumes and with the masses beginning preparations by joining the gym to get fit for the road parade. After Christmas day is over the radio stations begin to blast the newest hits of the upcoming season - the season of the flesh. The term carnival actually came from the Latin Carne Vale or "farewell to the flesh".

Modern-day carnival celebrations in Trinidad are inclusive - beginning with J'ouvert, (taken from the French Jour Ouvert, literally meaning Open Day), heralding the start of the revelry. There are all types of music and all types of ways to "play mas" (participating in the road parade). From traditional calypso and ex-tempo (songs made up on the spur of the moment) to popular soca beats, the rhythm of carnival pulsates, urging on the revelers as they "chip" (dance) down the road on carnival day. Many popular soca bands and artistes, such as Imij and Company, Atlantik, and Machel Montano, also integrate the styles of Jamaican reggae, dancehall and dub into their compositions, and sampling of pop and hip hop hits has also been on the rise in order to bring the groove into the modern era.

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