Get Splattered With Paint at Joyous J’ouvert in the Caribbean

J’ouvert is a large street party, which takes place during carnival festivities in the eastern Caribbean region. Meaning ‘dawn’ in French, this relatively unknown festival kicks off well before daybreak at an unsociable time of 4am, peaking a few hours after sunrise. However, this keeps it off the well-trodden tourist trail, unlike many of the other celebrations happen during carnival season.

This unique street party is celebrated on many islands, including Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and even in Notting Hill, as part of the carnival in London! Unlike most of the other Caribbean festivities, J’ouvert doesn’t go in for the usual feathers, sequins and conventional beauty of the carnival parades. It is in fact customary that no-one is left clean during J’ouvert, with revellers covering themselves in a choice of mud, paint or oil!

Carnival was first introduced to Trinidad by French settlers in 1783, a time of slavery. Banned from the masquerade balls of the French, the slaves would stage their own mini-carnivals in their backyards — using their own rituals and folklore, but also imitating and sometimes mocking their masters’ behavior. The dirt and the oil was used to hide party-goers faces and avoid them being recognised by their masters!

No related posts.