Carnival(e), Carne Levare,  Farewell to Flesh.

So we are in the maw of Trinbago Carnival and the powerful spirit that rivals and even supersedes the Christmas spirit here in Trinbago. But what do we know of carnival and its meaning in our culture?

“Farewell to the Flesh” is this period before Lent in Christian celebrations and was derived around the 16^th Century by the Catholic Church which was the dominant world religion at the time. But was/is it just; a period of overindulgence before abstinence; an altruistic period of preparing the body to compliment the spirit; a process to attempt to “Christianise” pagan rituals so as to maintain and increase catholic dominant influence.   (Visit: https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/celebrating-an-etymological-carnival/)

Whatever it was the influence came to the Caribbean with the

French slave and plantation owners and mixed with the various cultures that made up the landscape at the time. The cultures and social circumstances all influenced and flavoured the distillation that what is uniquely Trinbago Carnival, “The Greatest Show on Earth”.  (Visit: http://www.discovertnt.com/articles/Trinidad/The-Birth-Evolution-of-Trinidad-Carnival/109/3/32#axzz4Zw9oAy9n)

So is our unique cultural identity being eroded away by commercial interests or the will of the people? Are our costumes and characters being subsumed by “beads and feathers” more akin to a Brazilian type celebration?  Is it that like “real Trinis” we can only appreciate our own when we are in “foreign” or is it easy to celebrate verbally but too inconvenient to put into action? Are our celebrations grounded in any kind of Christian tenets or are we blindly or uncaringly practicing pagan rituals veiled by self-serving religious validation?

Is there hope for us?