Debbie Jacob
WELCOME to TT Carnival Monday, 2025. “We are thankful,” Farmer Nappy sings. “Jump up and wave. Be thankful for life. Be thankful for a new day.” It’s good advice.
Every Carnival we meet here on the streets of TT to celebrate our culture’s history, music and creativity. This is the place where the sacred and the profane collide.
Carnival is the musical antidote for all the bad and sad news that bombard us for the rest of the year. Carnival gives us hope and happiness. This is the one place we can count on good vibes.
We celebrate our roots and our individuality by marching through time with blue devils, midnight robbers, bats, and burrokeets, ushering in J’Ouvert and reminding us all to cherish history, a lesson forgotten for the rest of the year when we tear down our historic buildings. This obliteration of our history needs to stop.
Carnival reminds us that if we don’t care about our history, we can’t appreciate the present or the future.
As darkness wanes and the day dawns on Carnival Monday, pretty mas claims the road. Feathers, sequins, and skimpy costumes that leave little to the imagination create controversy and form a stark contrast with traditional sailors, fancy Indians and minstrels who appear like magic between large mas bands.
There’s a place for everybody and everything in Carnival. Nostalgia and controversy go hand in hand.
Steelbands thread their way through the streets, their music ringing out and contrasting with deejay trucks. We all come together on Carnival, put our differences and worries aside, and celebrate a rich cultural heritage and an unshakable belief that “all o’ we is one.”
Yes, “home is where the heart is. Everyone has a place they are attached to,” Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin, and Mical Teja sing, reminding us not only of the power of music, but also the power of collaboration.
Here, on these streets, claimed by masqueraders, all of the musical experiences from the season’s fetes, parties or “pardees” converge. Finally, there is a song, Pardy, that celebrates the only way I can say “party.” Visitors and immigrants like me have a part to play in this celebration too.
Listen closely to Pardy and don’t forget one of its most important commands, “Find the middle.” This is important to remember in a world that is becoming increasingly polarised.
We should also recognise how Carnival celebrates our Creole language, something we take for granted. Read the placards in ole mas, listen to extempo, calypso, and soca, and recognise that Creole is the language of Carnival because it celebrates our Caribbean identity and culture. Neither the colonisers nor our colonial education could rob us of our language.
Carnival reflects who we are at the core: lovely, upbeat, and inclusive. In this space, we form a lasting expression of camaraderie.
Every Carnival upholds tradition and brings something new. Some Carnivals feature music that mirrors our rage, but this Carnival has a collective energy – mellow, yet upbeat, hopeful, and full of pride. The energy for
