I’m pretty sure I have sciatica, which wasn’t helped by all of the walking we did in Japan.  And then, in Tokyo, my terrible habit of sleeping in my contact lenses finally caught up with me, and I think that I may have scratched my cornea (goodness gracious! did that hurt a lot).  So, along with all of the exhaustion from jet lag, I arrived in Grenada feeling like a total mess.

But one day after we returned, Carnival was beginning to ramp up and go into full swing.

In many countries, Carnival takes place around Lent (like the one of the best-known celebrations in Brazil).  But in Grenada, like some other Caribbean countries, Carnival is in the late summer or early fall.  I still am not sure why, but (as you might guess) I’m working on finding an answer.

Carnival weekend is four days long (with Monday and Tuesday being national holidays), so people do all sorts of things to celebrate the event.  Some people  have parties with family.  Some people visit friends and neighbors.  And of course, some people drink lots of rum and dance in the streets.

The biggest night of Carnival happened very early on Monday the 11th of August, beginning at about 3am, and it’s called J’ouvert (or Jab Jab).  I heard this song outside our bedroom window at about 3:45am, as it blasted me out of a dead sleep.  It’s called “Blame de Rum” by Lavaman, and he’s now my very first, very favorite Soca artist.

I bolted out of bed in time to see a number of construction-sized flatbed trucks full of people going by our house on their way to St. George’s, since that’s where the party ends up every year.  For about 5 minutes, I thought seriously about waking my husband, throwing on some clothes, and running out into the night to join the fun.  But, very quickly, my eye and my back reminded me that I wasn’t really fit to spend the next 6 hours dancing in the streets.  So i watched the trucks pass and then quietly went back to bed.

Bah!

The origin and meaning of J’ouvert are still a bit muddled for me, but I’ve definitely read a few explanations that included mention of former slaves celebrating emancipation, or those who were still slaves mocking the extreme high fashion of their masters, so there might be some of that going on.  See one such explanation of J’ouvert here.

A big part of going to J’ouvert is getting covered with different colors of paint–I’ve also seen lots of different explanations for that as well.  It seems that each community in Grenada has a different tradition, so depending upon where you might choose to celebrate J’ouvert, there will be different colors of paint, and even white powder, used by the participants to paint each other.  And then, of course there is motor oil that is still used by many to paint themselves.  A lot of men go to the party covered in motor oil and wearing something like a Viking helmet on their heads.

This is definitely a prevalent theme that I’m still reading about, so don’t ask me yet what the significance is.

Here’s a good video that I found first on Ms. YingYang’s Blog:

Most people will bathe in the ocean after J’ouvert, and then go home to rest before mas.  Mas (possibly named because some participants wear masques on their faces) takes place later on Monday and all day Tuesday, when participants dress up in costumes that they’ve worked on for months, and dance through the streets to be judged in the Parade of the Bands contest:

Pretty tremendous, right?  So you understand why I made my commitment to go to out for Carnival next year.  Especially the Soca Monarch competition!  Watch here to see Lavaman get the crowd TOO hyped up, descend upon the judges area, and consequently get himself disqualified for the 2nd year in a row.

For more good info on all of the official events (since I didn’t go out), please read the Grenada Tourism page about Carnival.