Two Day Street Festival with never ending music!
While Carnival shares its roots with its Lenten counterpart Madi Gras, Carnival throughout the Caribbean embraces African traditions including dance, music and costumes for a much more colorful, vibrant festival. However, because Trinidad and Tobago have the biggest carnival in the Caribbean, Grenada moved their Carnival to the first part of August (in 2022, it ran from Aug. 8-9). Also, so that Carnival is not celebrated on a Sunday, Jouvert, Jab Jab starts in the wee hours of Monday morning. We began to hear music around 0200 and decided to join the festivities at 0400. The party continued almost nonstop until Tuesday evening.
One of the most important things we learned about participating in Carnival is GMT—Grenada Maybe Time. Schedules were not posted because no one seemed to know when any of the events would actually start. If you have traveled in the islands, you know that patience is the name of the game—everyone is on “island time,” and Carnival is no different. However, this year the schedule went something like this:
Monday a.m.–Jouvert Jab Jab
The music began about 0200 with the streets full of revelers by 0400, and the festival continued until late morning. There were masqueraders dressed as devils known as Jabs-Jabs. Other people covered themselves in motor oil and paint and walked the street while dragging chains behind them to celebrate freedom from slavery.
Finally it was time to tune out the incredibly loud music and crash until the next parade began!
Monday afternoon-Pretty Mas
Music amped up again about 1400. I caught the tail end of this parade arriving around 1630.
This was the traditional Mas where bands (mostly trucks with loudspeakers) traveled down the street followed by dancing villagers from around Grenada.
We were told to be out on the street around 2000 for the parade of the bands. Luckily, we brought chairs with us, because the trucks and parade participants did not start coming down the hill until around 2300. This parade started at Grand Anse (3.4 km away) and marched around the lagoon to Carnage until about 0200 on Tuesday morning.
We finally headed back to the marina around 0100 on Tuesday morning to get some rest before the final presentation!
Tuesday p.m.—Last Lap
Large trucks with speakers playing soca/calypso music as well as trucks with steel bands traveled down the street, followed by dancing masqueraders dressed in brightly colored costumes from parishes around Grenada. While we were told the parade would start around noon, when we took to the streets around 1400, it had just begun. We stood in the hot sun until 1830 before heading back to the boat. However, the parade continued well into the night.
We enjoyed watching the colorful participants dancing and gyrating to the music in spite of the hot sun.
And that’s a wrap! Spice Mas 2022 Grenada Carnival is in the books!
When we awoke at 0230 on Wednesday morning, it was eerily quiet after basically nonstop, extremely loud music for over 48 hours. Being in Port Louis Marina surrounded by the Carnival on all sides of the lagoon, while not quiet, was a perfect place to experience Carnival!
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